Gotham Ghoul
by Mangalover4321
Summary: After spending a week in Japan, Tim Drake returned, but no longer Human. Resulting in an operation gone wrong, Tim now has the organs of a being called a Ghoul who feed on Human flesh. Now he tries to hid the truth from his friends, family, and vigilante life but with the help of Jason Todd, who seems to know more about Ghouls than Tim, and keeps him sane. {Inspired by Tokyo Ghoul}
1. Prologue: A tRaGeDy

**I don't own Batman or any other DC character.**

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**Inspired by the Manga/ Anime Tokyo Ghoul.**

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**Gotham Ghoul**

**Prologue**

* * *

**A tRaGeDy**

"_Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy." –F. Scott Fitzgerald_

* * *

It had been just one week since Tim Drake returned from his trip to Japan on matters of both businesses to the Wayne Foundation and Batman Corp. for the mysterious disappearances of people in Tokyo. He took up the cape and cowl of Red Robin and fought his way to solve the mysterious but instead of solving them and determining who was causing them, he had become one that caused them.

* * *

Tim sat at his desk in his apartment, his lights on and bloodshot eyes stared at the papers crumbled around him. He gnawed at the end of his pencil and pain rumbled throughout his body, his stomach grumbling for food to be delivered. He took a deep breath and rubbed his face, his body starting to quake for something to chew on.

_He hadn't been hungry for a week but now he suddenly was. _

He glanced down to his stomach and grabbed the bottom of his shirt to see the stitches on his body slowly beginning to fade away. His stomach grumbled again and he got up to his mini fridge, pulling out a sandwich and wrapped the BLT, one of his favorites. He brought it to his mouth and took a large chunk of it, chewing it fast before his taste buds started kicking in.

_It was like chewing a pig's intestines wrapped in sewage. _

He gagged out the sandwich, his blue eyes wide in horror and stared at it.

_Maybe it was old because he hadn't been home for a while. _

He looked back to the fridge and pulled out a chocolate bar that he got from his friendly elderly neighbor, he unwrapped it and snapped a piece off.

_It tasted of rubbish from a foul rotten fish._

He chocked it back up and fell to his knees, confusion and terror overriding him.

_What the hell is going on?_

Then he began his raid of trying every food he could find in his refrigerator and the apartment.

* * *

"Hey, Tim, everyone's begging to see you again you hermit! Even Stephanie-and that's saying something! Stop sticking your head in the books and come outside to see the sun once in a while! So once you get this message call me back kay!" Dick Grayson's voice echoed the household and Tim lay out on the floor, different food and drinks surrounding him with barely any bite or sip from the food or drinks. He placed a hand over his face and began to think of what may have caused the strange phenomenon.

Ah, he realized and pulled himself up, grabbing the bottom of his shirt and glanced at the switches.

_It's because of __**his**__ organs are inside me, isn't it? Yes, it had to be it. _

He quickly got up and rushed to the kitchen, looking for a large kitchen knife. He eyed the large blade and pulled his shirt up, gripping it with his teeth and his breath started to rush along with planning to aim correctly, so he could go call one of his brothers or the police themselves, and not hit any important organs but only the ones he desperately wanted to remove from his body.

His hands shook but he gripped the blade more tightly and he let out a small scream before plunging the blade towards his body.

He waited for pain to come but the only thing now on his mind was that the knife's blade had _snapped _right off of the handle from coming in contact with his skin. He dropped the blade and released his shirt, falling against his chest. Tears rose up in his eyes and he scowled before another gurgle of hunger erupted from his stomach. He looked down to it before standing up and slowly walked to the door, a now distance look appeared in his eyes. He looked back to his apartment before closing the door behind him and unknown to him his stomach would draw out the horrors of his visit to Japan.

* * *

He stood in front of Wayne Enterprise and looked at the security guards before sighing and started walking away. Tim's path slowed down as he entered a cross walk, multiple people passing him by and not even noticing that he stopped in the middle of it. His stomach growled and he sniffed the air, looking at current groups of people.

_People…People…_

A **couple** smiling at each other (_People…People). _

A **child** holding her **mother's** **hand** in her own tiny one with small pig tails up (_Children…)._

He looked around him again and (_People…People…) _noticing some **women** (_Flesh…_) chatting with each other. Then **two children**, one **boy** and the other a **girl** (_Flesh…_) with backpacks strapped tightly to their figure. A pair of **high school boys** (_Flesh…)_ chatted with each other discussion what he assumed was homework. A **family** (_Flesh…)_ passed by with a **little gir**l (_Flesh…)_ on the **husband's** (_Flesh…)_ shoulders and smiles greeted their faces, happy to be together. A **baby** (_Flesh…_) waved passed him along with a **middle aged man** (_FLESH…_) checking his watch with a briefcase **hand** in (_FLESH…)_ and an **early twenty year old woman** (_FLESH…)_ talked on the phone, a little bit her **thigh** (_FLESH…_) from her short skirt. He glanced back at the **couple** (_FLESH…_) and the **children** (_FLESH…)_ and the pair of **boys** (_FLESH…_).

Then he started looking at them with the same thought rolling in his head over and over again that would soon make him insane: _FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…FLESH…!_

The little girl paused and looked up at Tim. He snapped out of it with his eyes wide in terror and a small dribble of salvia gliding down his chin. People continued to pass him by and he slowly started to shake. The couple stopped and looked to him with the woman saying, "Is he ok?" The man scowled and pulled her aside, whispering, "Don't get involved, babe." They pulled away and continued on.

Tim bite harshly on his finger with tons of salvia dropping from his mouth, his hood covering his eyes and possibly a few tears along with it. He groaned and then quickly dashed away, ignoring the blaring headlights aimed at him and just wanted to get away from people.

* * *

He panted against the side of the garbage can and hugged his legs close to his chest, tears flowing freely down his cheeks. He slowly turned to face the reflective trash can before his eyes went even larger at the image casting back at him.

His left eye had its sclera black and his iris a deep crimson red with small veins of red coming out from his eye and covered tiny parts of his face.

He placed a hand towards it and said out loud, "What is this?"

Then he caught sight of man, probably just around Bruce's age, with long red hair and deep violet eyes grin at the side of his transformed eye.

He screamed and punched the trash can and sent it flying down the empty alleyway, scaring away rats and any possible homeless people from him. He panted and slowly got back up, his legs quivering and started moving down the alleyway.

"Kill a person…" he muttered, not even knowing what words spilled from his mouth, "And takes their _FLESH_!"

He gasped and snapped out of it, shocked and said, "What? It's almost like…"

He paused his train of thought and sniffed the air, his vision changing over to a different direction of the alleyway. He licked his lips and slowly started walking down that direction a small smile on his face, he slowly moved faster as it drew closer.

_Even though it was the first he ever smelled it, it seemed very familiar…_He started dashing now and moved faster, his smile growing even larger, _It was like his mother's cooking, the few times she was there spending her time with him but her cooking was delicious. Her smiling face cast down at him and he watched as she prepared the meal with some of his aid. _

_There was something in that direction that he could eat! _

He moved faster than what he had previously been able to do and salvia grew down his face, glancing around to find where the scent was coming from.

_Where was it?_

_Where was it?!_

_WHERE WAS IT?!_

Not knowing where he was going, he ran into a bunch of barrels of trash and he fell over with not much pain in his body. He quickly got up with his hood now down and smiled again, whispering to himself, "It's close…"

He slowly moved to the next corner, the smell filling him with euphoria and looked around the corner with the delight now replaced with horror.

A man stood over the body of a woman with a knife in hand and piece of the woman, fingers, toes, arm and leg, placed neatly aside to him with blood coating the man and he continued to dig into the woman's dead body before noticing Tim. The man's eyes grew large and exclaimed, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

Tim moved back a little before gulping at the sight of the dead body.

_He had been drawn there by a __**dead body. **_

And the smell was _killing him. _

He gulped and licked his lips before looking back at the man, knowing he should do something to stop the man and put him jail.

But he had _dinner there just waiting to be eaten. _

He scowled and decided to ignore his stomach (_for the meantime_) and charged at the man, his training kicking in and snarled at the man. The man flashed the knife at him, trying to swipe him with the blood. He smirked at this, now knowing that no blade could hurt him and he quickly lunged at the man.

"Don't eat me!" he screamed at Tim who only smiled even more at this, the smell of fear making Tim more eager to defeat the man. Tim grabbed the knife from the man and plunged it into his leg, causing the thug to fall to his knees in pain and scream. Tim stood over him with a smile still gracing his face and bent down to the man, grabbing the thug's arm and gripped it so tight he could the man's bones.

"Now are you going to go silently or do I have to _tear your arm right off and stuff it down your throat?" _Tim hissed at the guy then before the thug had anything to spew out a gun shot echoed the alleyway and blood sprayed across his face. He blinked at this then he scowled at this (_even though he wanted to devour the dinner someone let him have_) and snapped around to beat the crap out of whoever shot the criminal since he would hand the guy over to the police for them to deal with.

"Whoa, Baby Bird, what's going on with your eye?"

Tim's jaw went slack at the sight of Jason Todd, standing currently in his Red Hood outfit and reloading his guns. He tilted his head to the side before Tim quickly placed a hand over his mutated eye and mumbled, "None of your business."

Jason scoffed at this and pointed his gun towards the young man, replying back, "Are you sure? Maybe I can finally put a bullet between your eyes and move on with my life."

Tim gave a sad smile and hissed back, "Try it then."

They both stood still before Jason quickly moved the gun to aim at Tim's leg and fired a round, wanting for it to make the teen bleed but Tim didn't even flinch at the attack nor any blood erupted to where the wound should have been.

"What the fuck?" Jason hissed and Tim sighed before his stomach rumbled again. His eyes grew wide again and the smell of death rolled off Jason strongly into Tim's nose. He looked down to his stomach and then the dead criminal behind him, salvia dribbled down his mouth and his mile went large.

"_He's just garbage so I can eat him, right?" _ Tim said and chuckled at this while Jason tried firing another shot at Tim but reflect off of him.

"What the hell is with you kid?!" Jason yelled at him and Tim's eyes widen and screamed, "NO! I'm HUMAN! I won't eat it!"

Jason took a step back before Tim smiled again and went to grab the thug but Jason fired two shots at the teen, hitting the back of his head yet Tim stopped. He bent his head down towards Jason with a smile coating his face and said, _"You're willingly going to become my dessert. What a treat." _

Jason pulled his other gun out and replied back, "You're going to beg for mercy once you're through with me."

"_I like meat with a little fight in them." _Tim said and chuckled then he froze again, "No, I don't. I don't!" He placed his hands to his head and tears started to gather in his eyes.

"Stop playing with my hand! I'm HUMAN! Not a GHOUL! I DO N'T EAT HUMANS!" he screamed and Jason lowered his gun down a little before scowling.

"So you're hungry." He simply stated, his tone and stance quickly changing to ease and walked past Tim to the disregarded body parts the criminal took off of the victim, "If you're hungry then eat. I won't judge."

Tim looked up to Jason in confusion before he noticed Jason holding the couple of fingers in his hand before Tim. He gulped and shook his head wildly, ignoring the fresh meat waiting to be devoured.

"No! I'm human! I will not eat something of my own kind!" he yelled and Jason paused before removing his helmet so Tim could see Jason's frowning face.

"Listen, Tim," Jason said and placed the piece of flesh directly in front of Tim, "Just eat or you'll lose control of yourself and won't care anymore of who to eat."

Tim glanced at Jason before he licked his lips and he shook his head again. Jason scowled then grabbed Tim's hair, yanking him towards the flesh and shoved it into his mouth. Tim tried to ignore the piece of flesh in his jaw but he finally felt tears move down his face and finally accepted the food, taking a large chunk of it between his teeth and chewed.


	2. Chapter I: InCuBaTiOn

**Replies to Reviews:**

**To LonesWolfRage: I know! Sorry it's been a while but here's a new chapter to enjoy! **

**AN: This story will most likely be updated bi-weekly or every month since this will only have 12 chapters in total. Anyway, thanks for all the support everyone!**

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**I do not own Batman or any other DC character.**

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**Gotham Ghoul **

**Chapter I**

* * *

**InCuBaTiOn**

"_Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding." –Khalil Gibran_

* * *

He swallowed the piece of meat and tears clouded his eyes, something overpowering him to stop the hunger for one single second before wanting to immediately spit it out. He managed to pull away from Jason before falling back to his knees and hacked up the piece of flesh before he could digest it, glaring at Jason in anger.

"Seriously kid. Just eat the damn thing so I won't have to find a way to kill you." Jason said before grabbing Tim's jacket again, haling him to his feet with another piece of meat between his fingers and shoved it back into his mouth. Tim gurgled and struggled, forcing his mind in two: _to not fall prey to the new desire or the new hunger he gained towards human flesh._

"Why would you force me to do that?" he snarled through and Jason narrowed his eyes under the helmet before muttering something under his breath and hit Tim in the back of the end hard enough to knock the teen out with the butt of his gun.

* * *

Tim awoke to a single light placed down on him from his shudders and he took a deep breath hoping it had been a dream but when he looked around at the mess of his apartment, he knew it had all been true. A cup of coffee was to his side and he licked his lips, remembering the bitter taste to keep him up from falling asleep on the job of being a hero.

_And he hadn't tried it yet in his rage of finding food. _

He gripped the cup tightly in his hand almost as if it would snap if he put too much pressure on the thing. He crossed his fingers mentally before taking a large sip of the contents and drowned it without a second thought. He waited for the kick of taste buds to tell him that it was horrid or utterly disgusting but nothing came.

_He could drink coffee without any sickness drowning him. _

He almost wanting to burst out into tears before he took noticing of the small note near an enveloped packaged saying:

Dear kid,

Coffee is the only other thing you can have besides flesh now that you've changed. I left you some meat so when you get hungry again you can have something to eat without having to kill someone. I hope you get back on your feet soon since Dickie bird will start to question what the hell happened to you and I know that you do not wish for any of them to find out this little 'problem' of your.

Sincerely, Jason

Tim gulped at the sight of the manila case and his feet started to tap against the floor hard. His stomach growled again and he put his hands through his hair and his mouth started to water, remembering the sweet taste it had been for the second he ate it.

_Flesh…Flesh…Flesh…Flesh…_

He closed his eyes shut and bit hard down on his lip, trying to ignore the raking hunger burning his stomach to fill up on the open meal before him.

_Flesh…Flesh…Flesh…_

"Flesh…Flesh…Flesh…Flesh…" he mumbled to himself and continued to twitch before he got louder and louder.

"**Hungry aren't you, kid." **A deep breath said and he ignored the voice of the man who cursed him with this fate, **"No longer human with a deep burning hunger to enjoy the flesh." **

He stopped and snapped around to face the illusion in his head but listened to the voice and figure anyway. Long red hair glistened in the light if his shades and madding violet eyes glanced at him, a trench coat dragging his figure behind and he stood tall, almost as tall as Jason.

"**Enjoy it. That delicious piece of meat is waiting for you. It's so delicious." **He said and wrapped his arms around Tim's neck forcing him to bend towards to the flesh, **"Once you start eating it, you won't be able to stop. It'll put any meal to shame." **Tim grinds his teeth together and he yet out a scream then fell to his knees in front of it, his hands ready to tear open the package and his one that transformed glowed bright in the light.

_Go on and eat it. _

He struggled against his own restrains and placed his hands on the packaging, ready to tear it apart before his cell phone rang with a text popped up at the top from Stephanie saying: "You're gonna die alone." He scowled and tossed the meat aside, ignoring the pleading sound of his own voice and the man who turned into a monster.

* * *

An eye patch covered over his mutated eye as he walked through the hallways in the school and flipped open his phone to see Stephanie's text tell him to head over to the copy center of the building to receive his missing notes. He sighed and snapped the phone shut before glancing at a couple of girls eating some salad together, most likely discussing boys.

"TIM!"

He snapped around to face Stephanie smiling and waving at him with her blond hair bouncing as she ran to him. She attacked him with a hug that almost forced him to fall over from her tackle but he caught her.

"Where the hell have you been, you hermit?!" she exclaimed and he gulped at this, knowing any words she heard she would report to Bruce and Dick without another say. He ran his fingers through his hair while she waited patiently for an answer, her arms crossed over her chest and a small pout across her cheeks.

"Well, I've been recovering from the operation and I didn't have time to go out or the stitches would open up again." He replied as they started walking towards the copy center and she followed directly by his side.

"Dick and Bruce have been worried sick about you." She whispered and his eyes narrowed at this, ignoring the ping in his chest to tell them what had actually happened in Japan but denied it.

"I know." He replied back while holding the door open for her which she thanked him for then Steph barged into the Copy Center, a big smile on her face.

"Hey, Devin, we have Tim finally back to help!" she exclaimed and Tim's eyes grew large at the roll of blood and death crashed against his nose. He stared at the nineteen year old who wore khakis and a blue polo shirt but his smile was fake from the start. Meanwhile, his eyes were stained with an unsuspected bloodshed and he stared at Tim too like he could also sense something was off about him.

The teen grabbed Tim's hand and shook it, saying "Glad to finally meet you, Tim. Steph, here, has been talking _all about you_." Tim gulped and nodded at this, playing along for right now.

"Do you mind though if I went to go grab some more paper with Steph?" he asked and Tim shouted back, "Can I also too?"

They both stared at him before Devin nodded at this and they went off to go grab the papers.

* * *

Tim watched Devin intensely while they walked past a dark alleyway with no around them besides the three teens and Tim knew that Devin would pull something right away.

"This has to end right now." Devin whispered low enough to Tim to hear and then kicked Steph right into the wall, knocking her out instantly. Tim yet out a cry of horror before Devin's grin went insane his shoulders and muscles grew large enough to be compared to watermelons.

"_Time to have some fun!" _he exclaimed and charged at Tim, who tried to dodge it but a sudden pang of hunger, had all his strength drain from him. He grabbed his throat and raised him to his wall so he kicked round to have some breath. Some blood dribbled down his chin and his vision grew a little cloudy then Devin raised his other fist to be put through his skin. He gagged out a large amount of blood and dropped him.

"_Do you mind if I play with her, other monster? You do know her for a while now, right? So I'll have to spoil her for myself to play with." _He said and Tim groaned at this, staring at the other monster before him knowing that the teen must have took something like Venom to produce these results of turning .

"Leave her alone." He snarled at him and managed to charge at him, ready to use his fists but Devin easily tossed him aside. Tim groaned and Devin started twisted Tim's arm into odd shapes before forcing his head up to be tossed into a wall again. Blood stained the wall and Devin said, _"Come on and get up." _

Tim tried to go at him again but was yet again forced away to see Devin ready to smash Steph's face in. He raised his foot up and smirked at this while Tim struggled to get pass the pain and save Steph.

_No…No…Not again…_

_I won't lose anyone again…_

_I won't let anyone else die!_

His eyes shut open and the black sclera and red iris went to glare at the monster. Something red bubbled up from his back and burst out of a red substance where it took form of three red tentacles, his body shooting up and snarled at the man.

"I won't…I won't let that happen!" he snarled at the teen before the tentacles extended, attacking the teen that jumped up in order to miss the attack. He charged at Devin and then he snarled at the monster then with the tentacles. It purged through the monster's body like a spear, blood pooling out in a massive attack and a horrified expression crossed Devin's face.

Tim watched as more blood spilled and drenched the alley, he, and Steph from the monster and Devin cried out, _"Stop it! Stop it, you monster!" _The tails swung out and forced the monster's body into a large pole where it stabbing right through his lung. The monster's conscious fell and Tim gasped out from using so much power and strength to keep on going.

"Steph…" he whispered and turned back to her before his vision turned red and yellow, the man from earlier poking at Steph. He reached out to stop him and the man said, **"Look closely aside from her beauty. Doesn't she look delicious?" **

"Stop it! She's not to eat!" Tim exclaimed at the man and the man smirked at this, flashing sharp teeth at the teen.

"**Are you sure? Take a close look. See you can tell, right?" **he whispered and Tim's expression went blank before his salvia slowly dribbled off his chin, his frown turning into a crazed grin.

"**Mhm-hm. She does look so good!" **he exclaimed and chuckled a little, more salvia dropped down and inched towards Steph. He paused after realization of what he was thinking and gasped, placing his hands to his head.

"Stop! Stop that!" he exclaimed and he started to shake, the man's voice sending shivers down his spine as he continued to talk about Steph.

"**It's your own thoughts coming up with this, Timothy. Why deny it? You want to have her flesh slide down your throat and glaze your tongue crimson, right? Don't deny it. Nothing's wrong with it." **

Tim leaned against the wall and smashed his head against the wall, trying to block out the voice of his torment but nothing could block out the Devil taunting him with a deal.

"**Do it quickly. Do what you want." **

"Whatever I want?" he whispered slowly to himself and the man chuckled a little.

"**She is **_**all **_**yours Timothy." **

He grinned again, while his self-conscious and human self were falling behind the line of hunger. He turned back to Steph and moved towards her again, a madding smile across his face.

"_You're right. This is my special treat, right?" _he said and moved closer to her, his hands lingering above her body, _"I…I have to eat her. She is…" _

"_**MY FRIEND!" **_they both exclaimed and he couldn't help but drool unto her body. His jaw opened incredibly wide as he leaned down to take a bit out of her smooth, beautiful skin with no blemishes even though all the battles and tragedies she went through her life.

"Jeez, kid, I told ya to eat the meat I left you."

Tim looked open with his vision full of hatred and hunger, staring at the twenty year old in front of him. A gun cocked above his head and the safety was left off so he could easily fire a shot at Tim.

"Your sense of reason has been given away by hunger, huh?"

"_Move!" _Tim snarled at the man and Jason smirked at this, wearing only a mask to cover his eyes so his noir hair few down to his ears.

"You don't give a damn about your own teammate's life now." Jason said and moved closer to Tim, closely bending down to his ear and whispered, "After you gobble her up, you'll regret everything. In a sea of blood and entrails; that's the hunger you have to fulfill."

The red tentacles returned from out of his back and flexed towards Jason, ready to attack the guy. He pulled back a little before twirling his gun again with another one in hand

"Now try to go down easy, kid." He said and shot off one round to Tim with blood and darkness invaded his vision.

* * *

Tim shot open with his eyes large and terror striking across all his features. He slowly placed two fingers to move around his teeth to feel if something had actually happened to him. He stopped and removed his fingers to see a tiny amount of blood prickle his fingertips. He let out a gasp then he turned when he heard a door open behind him.

"I brought you back to one of my safe houses, kid."

Tim turned to face Jason and Tim's expression went wild with concern and terror.

"Steph?! What happened to her?" he exclaimed and Jason mentioned Tim to follow him. Tim bolted up and Jason rolled his eyes at this while walking slowly behind him. Jason pulled open a door to what Tim assumed was his living room by the cruddy wallpaper almost falling off the wall and a small table full of beer bottles, cigarettes, and a couple of newspaper clippings. On the couch though, lay Steph with her body wrapped around in bandages and Tim breathed out a sigh of relief. He felt relief drown his entire body before glancing down to the large bloodstain on his white t-shirt.

"The hunger…it took control me especially when I thought I might die." He stated and slowly moved away, sitting down at the table with his head between his legs, "I didn't realize what the hell I was thinking. And then I went after Steph but somehow…"

He glanced back to Jason and narrowed his eyes whispering, "But, right now, I feel no hunger at all."

Jason sighed at this and sat down across from him, taking a sip from one of his many beers.

"The blood in my mouth…Did you feed me when I got knocked out?" he asked and Jason took another swig his beer.

"You're only hungry for one thing now, kid. You understand it? The way you were going, you would have started going after anyone in sight." Jason stated and Tim grinds his teeth together before a horrified expression crossed over his face, running his hands through his long hair.

_He wanted to cry but he lost his all his tears long ago. _

"You know what you're going to have to do, right?"

Tim slowly nodded at this before looking back up to Jason with pity and hatred towards himself.

"You have to be careful from now on or everyone will take notice of how different you." Jason said and crossed his legs, "I know more things about Ghouls than what you know. I'll help you establish a new identity so when you need to eat or fight something that Red Robin can't handle you have something to rely on."

Tim smiled at this and couldn't help but nod at Jason's offer. Jason grinned at this and said, "Great. Then let's get started right away."

* * *

Somewhere else in the distance within an abandoned apartment, Bane and the Scarecrow stared at the dead body of the Venom influenced teen and Bane scowled under his mask. He kicked the body of the teen before glancing back at the Scarecrow, annoyance draping over his eyes.

"You said with Venom influencing the Toxin, the boy would be able to see where some of the Bats have gone." Bane said and the Scarecrow moved closer to observe the body where some pieces of flesh was pulled back, bleeding across the alley and a horrified expression across the dead teen.

"_I never stated any possible outliers in the equation though, Bane." _The Scarecrow stated and tapped his syringe fingers against the body before a sly grin came across his gas masked face, _"Although whatever killed the boy shall be an interesting find once we gain it…Imagine the possibilities to be featured from the specimen and what a find it shall be. I'll send out some people to investigate more about this disturbance and once we find its weakness; it shall fall to knees of the new rulers of Gotham." _


	3. Chapter II: DoVe

**To Westlyking: Here ya go! Hope you enjoy this chapter! **

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**I do not own Batman or any other DC character. **

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter II**

* * *

**DoVe**

"_The more bombers, the less room for doves of peace." –Nikita Khrushchev_

* * *

A syringe pressed against a drug dealer's neck and the dealer paled at this as it pushed closer and closer to an artery. The Scarecrow grinned at this and tapped his fingers against the shoulder of the dealer, waiting for his response to his question.

"_So have you delivered the message yet?" _he asked and the dealer gulped, trying to look away from his glowing eyes.

"_I assume you did not. Hopefully, you'll deliver it soon or someone could be offered up this new deal." _The Scarecrow stated and that caught the dealer's attention before he pushed the syringe into his skin, a large gasp escaping the dealer's mouth. The Scarecrow's grin grew larger as the dealer fell to the ground unconscious and ready to deliver his message to the Red Hood.

* * *

Jason handed Tim black coffee as they sat down at a small booth at a coffee shop. Tim breathed in the scent of the coffee and sighed at the content that he could actually drink the substance without needing to throw it back up.

Jason stared at the teen and looked down to his own meal of an Espresso and a Blueberry muffin. He took a bit out of his muffin then groaned at its goodness, earning a glare from Tim. He shrugged at the teen before wiping his mouth using his shelve as a napkin.

"Sorry," he said with a mouthful of muffin, "You can't blame a guy for being hungry."

"I don't mind." He said and took a sip of his coffee, "It's just annoying with acting like a slob."

Jason smirked at this before taking another bite of his muffin.

"I was born this way, kid. Can't blame me for being raised as one too." He stated then pointed slightly to behind him. Tim blinked t this then looked behind him, paling at the sight of Stephanie Brown sipping away at her hot chocolate while reading a book he gave a few years ago. He shot back around towards Jason and hissed, "What should I do? You left her at her apartment!"

Jason took another bite of his muffin and shrugged at this.

"Well, we didn't need her to assume anything since ya know-you almost _ate_ her." He said in a whisper and Tim narrowed his eye at this then Jason stood up. He pulled out his phone and smirked at it, seeing a text.

"I'll be right back. I gotta call back someone." He said and walked away for a moment with his espresso in hand, leaving Tim to face Steph alone as she turned and looked directly at him. He gulped as she got up and walked towards his booth, her eyes narrowed at the sight of him.

"What the hell happened?" she hissed at him and he gently placed down his coffee, staring at its contents swirling around.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Steph." He answered and looked up to her mad blue eyes.

"You know exactly what I mean, Tim!" she exclaimed and slammed her book on the booth, "I got knocked out when Devin…changed and next thing I know I'm at my apartment all covered in bandages with a message saying Devin was arrested and everything is fine. Tim, I know that's a lie! I know you well enough when you're lying to me."

He bite his lip at this and looked around to see if Jason was around anywhere to help him.

"Well, he was apprehended and you're ok so why does it matter about the truth?" he asked and she clenched her fists before she frowned at tis.

"Fine," she said and clutched the book to her chest, "Then I'll find out the truth on my own." She left without another word and he watched her leave with a sway in her hips and a pout on her face.

"I guess that didn't go as planned." Jason said from behind him and he turned to face the former Robin who held his phone out to Tim, "We have to go now. I've got somewhere to be and you'll be my tag along."

* * *

Nightwing drummed his fingers against his thigh at the sight of the Venom influenced teen with holes piercing his body from an unknown weapon and his lung pierced on a pole. He narrowed his eyes under his mask and Batman turned to the Bat Family: Dick Grayson, the first Robin now known as Nightwing, Damian Wayne, the current and forth Robin, Barbara Gordon, known as Bat Girl before the Joker paralyzed her and confounded her to a wheelchair is known now as Oracle, Cassandra Cain, the daughter of two villains that was Bat Girl after Barbara was paralyzed but now gave up the title to be Black Bat, Katherine Kane, the army brat before she could expelled for being a lesbian turned into Batwoman, and finally Stephanie Brown, once known as Spoiler spoiling her villain father's crime then took up the mantle of Bat Girl.

"This is what we know," Batman began as Nightwing swirled in his chair and Robin glared at the twenty year old, "The victim is known as Devin Morris, nineteen years old, currently enrolled at Gotham University under the major of Communication. Cause of death: Exsanguination from being pierced with an unknown weapon. The weapon though has a diameter of five inches from the size of the holes."

"So, what you're saying is that the weapon wasn't found at the scene of the crime or anywhere near it." Nightwing said and Batman narrowed his eyes at this, before turning to the computer screen and pulled up some old footage seeing Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake walking with him down an alley before the footage could no longer capture their trail. Everyone turned to Stephanie and she sighed at this, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Look, I got knocked out when he changed into a Venom monster. I tried talking to Tim today but he wouldn't say anything and there was no notable bruise or bandages on him either." She stated and Dick nodded at this, drumming his fingers against his thigh again.

"Then one of us can go check up on him." Nightwing suggested, "None of us besides Steph has seen Tim since he got back from his trip. We could also throw him a welcome back party and check out his place for any evidence that he's hiding from us."

Batman nodded at this approach and Robin scowled at his predecessor's suggestion, thinking he could out smart him.

"That is a good opportunity but he'll know that we are investigating him f we throw a surprise party. Going for a one-to-one approach would ultimately work better for him." Batman said and looked back up to the dead teen, "We'll find out his killer."

* * *

Tim spat out the sandwich before he had a chance to swallow it and glared at Jason, stating, "The cheese is like a curd smelling clay and the bread is a bland sponge." Jason chuckled at this before taking away the sandwich and tossed it in the rubbish.

"That's a good description for what you think of a plain grilled cheese sandwich." Jason said and grabbed another sandwich, taking a bite out of it, "The trick is not to eat it; you swallow it whole. You have to pretend to chew it about ten times. If you make chewing sounds while you do it, it will seem more real. Then be sure to throw it up before you start digesting it. Otherwise, it will ruin your health." He swallowed it and placed his remains on plate, facing the teen again.

"One day, kid, once you've practiced, you can eat with your friends and family again." He said and Tim gave a small smile.

"If you say so." Tim replied before Jason dug out something from his pocket, handing it to him, "What's this?"

Jason shuffled through his pocket and dug out a package of Marlboro cigarettes and a lighter. He popped one in his mouth and flickered the lighter on, a flame smothering the end of it. He sighed and answered, "It's something of a snack packaged in a cube."

Tim frowned at this and Jason sighed again before answering, "Listen, kid, you're gonna need to go get some food tonight by ourselves." He paled and opened his mouth it protest then closed it shut at this.

"Where are you going to get the bodies?" Tim asked and Jason then smirked at this, smoke escaping from his nose and mouth at this.

"Oh, don't worry about it kid." He said and pulled out the cigarette before moving to the door, "It's just a short jog to the place."

* * *

They both stared at the dead body hanging from the top of an old building and Tim's eyebrows twitched at this, turning to Jason who already started walking towards the entrance of the building. He followed him closely behind him and opened the door, although he almost fell back at the sight of more bodies covered in blood at the bottom of the floor.

"You have the bags, right?" Jason said and Tim slowly nodded at this, pulling it out before Jason lit another cigarette.

"Then let's start bagging these bodies. We don't have all night." He said and opened the bag and both of them started stuffing the dead bodies in the bag.

* * *

Elsewhere, Nightwing punched another dealer in the mouth as he dodged another attack from a different one but Robin kicked the one away. He patted the younger boy on the shoulder and grinned at this before casually walking over to one of the dealer's then pressed his foot on the hand of the dealer.

"Now, let me ask you this one more time. Have you ever heard of the name Devin Morris?" he questioned the dealer and pressed on the dealer's hand even harder who groaned in pain.

"No! Who the hell is that?!" he hissed and Nightwing sighed at this before rolling his shoulders and faced Robin.

"I guess that's all for tonight." He said and Robin scowled at this.

"Because you sent so much time digging into other people's stuff." Robin stated and Nightwing shrugged before turning back to the dealer.

"Sorry, pal, guess we'll talk more tomorrow." He said and the dealer opened his mouth to question Nightwing but he delivered a non-fatal wound to the dealer that had knocked him out.

* * *

Tim awoke to the sight of his home phone ringing and groaned at the thought of answering some random person asking if he wanted to buy a condo or something like that. He grabbed the phone and picked it up, placing it to his ear.

"Yes?" he asked and waited for a response.

"Hey, kid! Morning, are you gonna be busy tomorrow?" Jason's voice greeted him form the other end and Tim wanted to toss the phone out the window from last night's experience.

"Why?" he groaned and checked his clock to see the blaring numbers of five A.M.

"I managed to get a buddy of mine to help create a new identity for you when ya need it." He replied back and Tim sighed at this, running his fingers through his hair.

"Fine. I don't have any classes today or tomorrow. Where do you want to meet up?" he asked and Jason paused for a moment.

"Do you know where the Iceberg Lounge is?"

Tim blinked at the question but replied back, "Yeah. I've been there both undercover and busting the place up."

Jason chuckled from the other line and answered back, "Can't wait. See ya then sleeping beauty! Remember at five o'clock tomorrow morning! Good night."

He hung up and Tim sighed at this, closing his eyes again hoping he could get a whole day of sleeping without having any nightmares or waking up feeling hungry.

* * *

Tim stared at his wrist-watch as the clock turned five and he glanced around to see a shadow shift from an alleyway. He stood tale before Jason walked out from the place, wearing his normal crime fighting outfit.

"Mornin' kid." Jason said and mocked a yawn, earning a glare form the teen. He nudged him forward and he quietly followed him, the darkness clinging to them both.

They passed through different alleyways in twists and turns along with glass shattering and swears erupted from the even darker shadows. Tim winced at this before Jason took an unexpected to a door where graffiti greeted them in multiple colors. He opened it up and Tim's eyes grew wide as he walked in.

Different types of outfits and masks of different styles, colors, and facial styles greeted them as they entered although the interior looked like it needed some fixing up with a couple of holes in the ceiling and a terrible odor coming from one corner.

"Tes! Are you here?" Jason called and they both walked around, trying to find the person called Tes. Suddenly someone tapped Tim's shoulder and he shot around, facing a man with tattoos of Latin words and crosses running down from his face to his shoulders. The man's dyed green hair was pulled back in a ponytail and a lip piercing puffed out from pouting at the sight of the Tim. He stood a little taller than Tim but was shorter than Jason's six two.

"Good morning." He stated and took a bow at this. Tim raised an eyebrow at this and Jason chuckled a little at this, placing a hand on Tim's shoulder.

"Kid, this is Tes. He'll be making your outfit." Jason explained and Tim scanned the man up and down in doubt of trusting the man.

"Hello, I am Tes." He restated and Tim glanced back at Jan then back to Tes.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Tim." He said and Tes then started circling around them, scanning Tim up and down.

"So he's the little birdie you've been hiding." Tes muttered under his breath and stopped at this, looking to Jason again, "I've heard you've been busy but I would have never guessed that it was because of a kid."

Jason shrugged at this then Tes pulled out a piece of a paper ruler for measurements. Tim opened his mouth to complain but even without seeing Jason's eyes he could tell he wanted him quiet. He pulled away and then Tes started taking measurements, wrapping the ruler around his head and traveled with it through his body.

"Are you fine with any type of material?" Tes asked and Tim nodded at this as he measured his neck.

"Is there a certain style you want?" he asked again and Tim shrugged at as Tes then measured his shoulders and chest.

He sighed and pulled away from him, taking out a sketch book to do a couple of doodles for ideas.

"I'll call you when I finish it. It shouldn't take too long since I have many materials here." Tes stated and Jason nodded at this.

"Ok. See you later, Tes." Jason said and started to leave with Tim on his tail who looked back and wasn't shocked to see the man already gone within the shadows of the establishment.

* * *

"So how exactly do you know that guy?" Tim asked and Jason sighed, his mask shining from the sunlight now piercing the skies.

"Old friend of mine before the whole resurrection thing happened." He told him and Tim nodded at this, "Also, your friends, the doves as I also call 'em, have been going around trying to figure out what happened to the kid you totaled."

Tim gulped at this and glanced down at the ground, thinking about what exactly happened.

"So, instead of Red Robin or Tim Drake, they need to think it's someone else. That's another reason why the costume is being put to use." Jason began and sat down in the corner of the alleyway, taking off his helmet. He pulled out a package of cigarettes and stuck one in his mouth, flipping a lighter open and lit up the joint.

"God damn Bats." He muttered under his breath and Tim sighed at this, running his finger through his hair as he thought about Jason's words on his family.

"Red Hood, correct?"

The teen turned and faced a man with glazed over eyes and some salvia dribbled down his chin. He raised an eyebrow at this and Jason sighed at this, smoke escaping his lips. He stood up and grabbed his helmet at the sight of the man. The man licked his lips, as if he were dying of thirst, and his clothes barely held onto his body.

"Yeah? That's my name." Jason said and took out his cigarette, tapping the butt of it where ash fell out. The man twitched and Tim gripped the shelves of his sweat-shirt tight, his instincts telling him a major fight was just about to happen.

"Y-y-you…" the man stuttered and licked his lips, "N-n-n-need m-m-m-message. Message about warning. Warning…warning…"

Jason sighed and dropped his cigarette, killing it with the heel of his boot. He placed his helmet back on and grinned from underneath it, the blood rushing around throughout his body.

"For-for-for…" the man said then bite at his nails, gnawing now at his skin. His eyes rolled wildly around and Tim's nose twitched at the scent of blood. His eye grew large and quickly went to cover up his nose from catching any other scent.

"_STAY OUT!" _the man screamed then charged at Jason but before another say was mentioned, a gunshot echoed the alleyway and blood exploded on the ground. Tim's eye grew wide at the sight of the dead man and turned to Jason who held the smoking pistol and didn't even act out to stop it.

"Let's go. Someone will report they heard a gunshot and we don't need to be here for Cops or Doves to swop in and question us." Jason said and placed the gun back in the holster he carried. He started walking away and turned to Tim who just stared at the dead man's brains splattered against his shoes. He sighed and swore under his breath.

"Kid, are you hungry by any chance?" Jason asked and Tim shook his head no, looking up to Red Hood.

"No…" he began then stalked away from the body, his emotions in turmoil from either to stay and arrest Jason, finish the cleanup job, or walk away from the scene of a crime he witnessed. He took a deep breath and Jason grinned wide from under his helmet, placing a hand on Tim's shoulder.

"I'm fine." He said, and continued walking away, "I'm fine. I'm fine." He repeated to himself and Jason as if he were trying to convince himself he really was fine with everything when he actually wasn't.


	4. Chapter III: SuPpEr

**AN: Sorry for such a long update! It took forever to plan out what I wanted to happen in this chapter and how long I wanted it to be. I hope you guys enjoy it because I love writing this one! Please leave a favorite, follow, or review! Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**I do not own Batman or any other DC comic. **

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter III**

* * *

**SuPpEr**

"_And if strangers come to supper they shall be served with more according as they have need." –Robert Grosseteste_

* * *

Tim laid down on his bed, taking in a deep breath before looking around at his messy apartment while running his fingers though his hair. He stood up and started picking up the food he scrabbled around with on the day he figured out he could no longer digest regular food.

"_Wow, Tim! You really are the only one who can cook huh?" _

The voice of his step-brother echoed in his head and he stifled down a gag from the smell. He pinched his nose and continued to clean it up before Dick would come over wanting to visit and see how he was doing based on meeting him outside a coffee shop.

* * *

_Three Hours Ago, Approximately 6: 30 A.M._

Tim waited in line to order both Jason and himself coffee, but thinking about the morning before was bringing up bad thoughts.

**Flesh…**

He shook his head to clear his thoughts before someone poked him in the back, alarm pricking up at this. He turned around to be faced with a gigantic tackle, his instincts both human and ghoul told him that he should fight back until he heard the voice greet him.

"Timmy! You're alright!"

He blinked and the person pulled him to be greeted by Dick Grayson's sky blue eyes and bright smile, looking down at him. Instead of his vigilante armor of the Nightwing suit, he wore his casual outfit of a blue cardigan and khaki pants with a smile plastered across his face.

"Hi, Dick," he stated simply and then Dick frowned at the sight of the eyepatch.

"Did you bang up your eye also in Japan?" he asked and Tim sighed at this, a plan ready forming in his head about how he acquired the eyepatch.

"Well, it technically did when I got injured and an infection spread to my eye." He stated and unconsciously moved his hand to his stomach, clutching his sweatshirt from this. Dick glanced at this with narrowed eyes before Tim blinked at this, looking back at his brother.

"Anyway, why are you here?" he questioned him and Dick quickly got rid of his suspicious face then slung his arm over Tim's.

"I heard that this place had really good coffee. Babs suggested it for me to go get her some." He told him and Tim nodded at this before a cashier called out for the next person in line. Tim moved up to go order until Dick tagged along with him and leaned up to the counter, grinning at the woman cashier with flattery on his features. Tim's eyebrows twitched at this before opening his mouth to give her his order but Dick spat out, "One Ice Coffee with extra whip crème, a Frappuccino, and an Ice Tea for my little brother here."

"I would actually like two black coffees." Tim said without any thought and the two stared at him in shock. He swore in his thoughts for taking action without any previous idea what to say if he would do such a thing. Dick raised an eyebrow at this before shrugging and pulled out some cash, while the cashier told him the price.

"Why two coffees?" Dick whispered at him and Tim rang his fingers through his hair.

"I was getting two because I was meeting up with someone." He told him and Dick nodded at this, reporting it for future references.

"Oh, who?" he asked and Tim glared at him, anger flashing in his eye.

"Why? It's none of your business to take notes on who I associate with. I'm nineteen years old, an adult in the legal system." He snarled at him and when the cashier held out his two coffees, he snatched them out of her hands. He stormed out of the place and ignored the calls of his brother before he stopped at the cross light being red with cars speeding between the intersection.

"Tim! Hey, wait a minute, Tim!" He heard Dick call out to him and he snapped around to face him, anger written all over his features.

"What the hell do you want Dick?" he hissed at him and Dick frowned at this, his two drinks cupped delicately in his hand.

"I'm sorry for making a scene Tim…it' just been a long time since we've hung out as a family or brothers. I just wanted to spend some time together." He stated and Tim paused to think about this before sighing, knowing he would not escape questioning if he didn't bring Dick to his place to talk.

"Fine, you can come over in a couple hours since I have to go clean up the place before you come over." Tim said and Dick grinned big at this.

"Sweet! I'll call you when I'm heading over! See ya Tim!" he called as he went in the other direction and Tim swore to himself, realizing that he needed to clean up after his mess with food.

* * *

_Present, Approximately 9:30 A.M._

He blinked out of his quick flashback and scowled, not knowing he spent time dozing off. He grabbed more food from the ground, a sandwich filled with ham and cheese that was now moldy greeted him. He nearly gagged at the smell and quickly placed it in the trash bag, trying his best to ignore all the smells that greeted his nose.

"Is this a bad time, kid?"

He snapped around to face Jason with a cigarette between his lips and a gun resting in his hands. His eyes glanced around to see him pick up all the food he trashed. He smirked at this and Tim glared at him, his eyes flashing a dangerous glint in them.

"It actually is. What do you want Jason?" he asked and Jason scowled at this.

"What I want to actually do is warn you that Dick is actually going to investigate you about the Venom kid's death. He wants to determine if you had anything to do with it since Blondie had spoken to the whole Dove community about it." He stated and Tim's eyes grew wide at this before looking back at his hands, remembering the blood coating them and how close he came to _eating _Stephanie.

"Ok. Glad to take notice of that. Now if there's nothing else, please leave before he comes." Tim said and then continued picking up his trash until he heard the click of Jason's gun to his head. He paused and Jason grabbed his cigarette out of his mouth, puffing smoke out from his lips and nose.

"We _need _to talk." Jason said with seriousness and Tim waited for him to finish his statement, "When you have time after Dick leaves, come find me at my place. I have food ready for you and then we'll talk there privately."

He removed his gun from Tim's head and Tim stood back up to his normal height, tying the trash bag at the end of it. He turned to face Jason and said, "Fine. I'll be there. Now do you mind tossing this out as you leave? I don't need Dick to suspect anything with me caring out a trash bag."

Jason placed the cigarette back between his lips and smirked at this before snatching the bag out of his hand.

"I'll ya later then, kid." He said before leaving through his window and Tim glanced around at his place, seeing nothing in his sight that would cause Dick to think twice about him. He sighed and sat down on his couch, running his fingers through his hair.

_What the hell would he be asking about? _

He started to think about the possible questions Dick would ask him.

_Would he question about the surgery? Would he ask more about the eyepatch? Or the fact that I'm missing from the surveillance video of me missing in it? Or why I decided to change my order at the coffee shop?_

He stood frozen at his thoughts until his intercom rang to be let in. His glaze lifted to it and lingered at the thought of: _Should I even let him in? _

It continued to ring before he stood up and casually walked over to it then pressed it, answering, "Come in."

Well, there was no backing down now.

* * *

Dick walked in with a smile on his face along with Damian Wayne by his side.

Tim could feel his breath get hitched and stared at the preteen boy who also looked at him with confusion written on his face. They both glanced around at his apartment and Damian narrowed his eyes at the sight of him.

"What is with the eyepatch, Drake?" he demanded and Tim glared at him before walking over to his kitchen counter, grabbing out a cup for coffee.

"It got infected after my surgery." He answered and found the bag of coffee grounds, pouring it in his coffee maker.

"Tch. Your immune system must be weak to get sick right after a surgery." Damian said and Tim couldn't help but ground his teeth together.

_It isn't my freaking immune system that's bad, kid! I've become a flesh eating monster because of it!_

He started making a cup as Dick took a seat next to Damian and asked, "Do you have anything to drink besides coffee Tim?"

He froze at his actions and his eyes grew wide at his realization on how unprepared he was to thinking about others need for food or water.

_I completely forgot about that! What the hell am I going to say about that?! They'll suspect me even more if I don't have some water or other drink to offer!_

He opened up his fridge and then to his surprise it held water, beer, orange juice, and a couple of other different types of food along with a note stating:

_Kid,_

_Next time you clean your place try to remember that you need to assume the life of a normal college kid. I brought some beer and couple of drinks to make sure that Dick doesn't assume anything about your eating/ drinking habits. You owe me big time for this._

_Jason_

"What's the letter about Drake?"

Tim crumbled the letter before Damian could even read it then stood up, glaring down at him. He raised an eyebrow at this and crossed his arms over his chest as he felt in control of everything right now unlike a few moments ago.

"It's a list of what to get for groceries next time I go out." He stated and Damian scowled at this,

"Tch. Whatever." Damian said as he studied the apartment even more and then sat back down on the couch with Dick.

"So, Timmy, how has college been to you?" Dick asked and Tim blinked at the question since he has not even gotten back to it due to the incident with Steph. He swore and rubbed his head at this, causing the other two Bats to question his reaction.

"I haven't gone back for a while. I have to be failing my classes from this point." He complained and ran his fingers through his hair.

"What have you been doing that's been occupying you time?" Damian asked and Tim pointed to all his computers hanging in the corner with cords surrounding them.

"I've been busy due to my injuries updating and adding new firewalls to protect it from viruses." He replied and then sighed as his coffee rang to be done. He stood back up and went to grab the cup, staring at the steaming cup of coffee.

"That seems like you could be doing something else in the meantime." Damian stated and Tim snapped his gaze up to Damian, anger hinted in his one eye revealed while behind the eyepatch his eye turned to violent black and red.

"_I have free time to do whatever I want, brat." _He said in a _very _different voice from what the Bat family was used to. His tone was dark and full of anger, as if he were ready to tear him apart just from his question.

Damian felt a shiver go down his spine and stared at Tim with wide green eyes meanwhile Dick held the same expression across his face.

"**Children has such a **_**tender **_**taste to them. This child though is less meaty than others but he can be dual able. I'm sure **_**you **_**don't mind though, right, Timothy?" **

The voice of _him _brought Tim back to reality and he turned away from them, placing a hand to his head. He bit his lip and tried not to drool at the thought of his younger brother's skin and muscle peeled back to devour on in a pool of blood.

"**How about your older brother? He's got plenty of muscle and bones to chew on. I'm sure his flesh would graze down your throat like a rib-eye on a platter." **

Dick's mangled body flashed across his eyes and in his hand were a piece of bone with muscle and blood hanging onto it. He could feel himself raise it up to his mouth to rip a piece off and graze his throat crimson.

_Oh the ecstasy that was flowing through him. _

"TIM!"

He snapped out the hallucination and stared face to face with Dick shaking him back in forth, worry knit in his eyes. He stared down at the floor with his hair plastered across his face so his eye couldn't reveal the horror in it.

"I'm fine, Dick." He stated and took a deep breath before plastering a fake smile on his face, "Don't worry, Dick. It's nothing to be concerned of."

Dick stared at him before dropping his guard and backed away a little bit.

"Tim, why do want to lie about something that could be seriously affecting you?" Dick asked and Tim sighed before running his hands through his hair.

"Dick, I promise that nothing is going on. If there was, I would tell you right away." Tim stated and Dick scowled at this before grabbing hold of Tm's shoulders.

"Then why were you with Steph when the boy, Devin, attacked you two?!" Dick exclaimed and Tim narrowed his eye at this question.

"So you didn't come here for wondering how I was doing from the surgery, huh?" Tim hissed at him and shoved him away, placing his hands on his counter as blood rushed to his head. Irrational thoughts began to pass through his head and he gripped the table tight, not knowing that his nails were scraping the wood.

Dick quickly realized what he said was wrong and his eyes held wide at this, shaking his head no.

"Of course not, Tim! It's just-!" he tried explaining until Tim flashed his one eye to him that held distrust and anger.

"Just get out. If you think I'm going to answer the question then you're wrong to think so. Get out of my sight and don't come back with anyone else. I won't answer the door and I will leave before you get to me." He stated and Dick sighed, knowing he couldn't win an argument with Tim when he was angry. He turned to Damian and who knew to leave, opening the door and walking out. Dick followed his suit and stared at him with sorrow and worry as he closed the door behind him.

Tim sank down to his knees and slammed his fist into his cabinets, the sound of emptiness surrounded him.

"Damn it all…" he swore and peeled off his eyepatch with black and red greeting the world, _"Why did it come down to this?" _

* * *

Batman stared at the recording Dick had taken from their visit at Tim's house and narrowed his eyes at the strange behaviors he was showing. He rubbing his hand across his chin and glanced at one time frame that was showing him at the counter as if he were talking to himself but no voice recording could be heard or lip synch to match any words.

"Is there anything useful to prove about the Devin Morris case?"

He snapped around to face Dick Grayson in is Nightwing gear but the mask not on his face. He held sorrow in his blue eyes and Batman sighed at this.

"He's like a completely different person, Dick. I can't assume anything until I get his health records from Japan to be sent in since for his surgery they only recorded it paper." Batman stated and Dick raised his eyebrows at this.

"They _wrote _it down. They didn't even record it in the computer?" Dick questioned and Batman nodded at this.

"Indeed. Getting these documents are nearly impossible because the transplant wasn't truly official to put into Tim's body. The doctor apparently did so without consist of Tim and the dead man's family of approval." Batman stated and Dick's eyebrows shot up at this.

"So he pretty much performed an illegal organ transplant?" Dick suggested and Batman nodded then Dick paused for a minute, "What exactly was replaced in Tim?"

"I do not know."

Dick blinked at this before Batman swirled his chair around to face him, then said, "All the information about his transplant is on the documents but what I can figure out so far is that the accident crushed the other man to death with his intestines and stomach working properly even after death so those organs could be transplanted and probably a few others.

"In the accident report, Tim had been in his civilian clothes and damaged a large part of his body, which they did not record. The steel bars, due to faulty wiring holding them up, had snapped and pierced his abdomen and crushed the other man Tim was with. With the information of his abdomen, I conclude that he had transplanted the stomach, small intestine, large intestine, pancreas, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, and spleen."

Dick's eyes grew wide at the list and Batman sighed, rubbing a hand across where his brow would have been.

"Tim had to be through hell when he got through that surgery." Dick whispered then a communicator went off, echoing the Bat Cave.

"_So I heard Red Hood is putting in a new guy to fight tonight near Blackgate. Heard he's good."_

"_Ya gonna put some money on 'im?"_

"_Nah. I'm sticking with Banes guy tonight since he is raining champ for a while." _

Batman stood up quickly at the mention of both Red Hood and Blackmask. He paused his research on the Devin Morris homicide case and went to the Bat Mobile.

"You going to check it out?" Dick asked and Batman grunted in response, knowing the response meant a yes, "Do you want me to go undercover for this?"

"No. You'll be with me for patrol check while I have Black Bat and Batgirl as undercover. Oracle while keep surveillance up on any development. Robin is going to stay home for this, I don't need him to go in head first and using him for undercover will be suspicious for someone his age." Batman stated as Dick nodded before they both got ready, not knowing that the youngest member of the Bat family had caught on to every word spoken.

* * *

"Here's your outfit, kid. Now put it on quickly because you have a show tonight to put on along with some hair dye." Jason said as he tossed Tim a bag who easily caught but with confusion written on his face. Tim raised an eyebrow at this and started opening it up before holding it up in front of him.

It was black hoodie with the shelves ripped off but a red long shelve shirt was to be put under it with black leather gloves. A black painted skull was placed on the center of his chest while there was black baggy jeans with many pockets on them also in the bag. Finally, it was a black mask fashioned to resemble leather gimp mask with an eyepatch. It bares lipless mouth that shows large gnashing teeth, much like some of Gotham's monsters, with a zipper to open it up. Plus it held a two bolts sticking out from the neck of the mask as if he were Frankstein.

"Nice job, right? Tes designed it all from scratch and the only thing he wants in return is to see you tonight at the fighting ring down near Blackgate." Jason stated and took a sip of is beer.

"Wait-what?" Tim said at his response and almost dropped the outfit at his statement.

"I put you in as my guy in a fighting ring tonight. Tes suggested to test it out there and you can't back out of the deal since I gave you food for the meeting with Dickie-bird." Jason said and started putting on his Red Hood uniform. Tim scowled at the thought of the meeting and Jason raised an eyebrow at this.

"I'm guessing it didn't go out as planned."

"It started out shitty and ended with more crap I'm going to have to deal with later on." Tim replied and Jason placed his helmet on, nodding at this.

"Well, use that frustration to help win your fight." Jason said then turned back to Tim, "The _Gantai no _first match will begin today and he needs to be get ready to kick ass."

* * *

Slipping into the crowd of fighters and observers was easier said than done from Damian Wayne as he made his way to ring, passing by others in a simple disguise of looking like a street rat who was curious about the rumored fight. He keep his head down and ignored the urge to yell at them to stay quiet so he could hear the people being called out.

"Next is Red Hood's new guy, _Gantai_!"

His head perked at Jason's name being mentioned and continued to move closer as the fight started up.

* * *

Tim heard his new name being called as his thoughts scrambled in his head over needless things such as his argument with Dick, thinking about **FLESH**, what to do if Bruce were to check on him, why Jason knew so much about Ghouls, **FLESH, **how there was so many **FLESH** around him, the smell of blood almost overwhelming his sense, **FLESH, FLESH, FLESH FLESH. **

He quickly snapped out of it as Jason shoved him into the fighting ring and faced his opponent who bore a similar outlook like Devin. Green veins popped out from the man's skin and a crazed expression placed on his face held no remorse, muscles the size of cantaloupe struggled to be contained from his skin.

"_You'll be a pleasure to kill ya, kid!" _the monster of a man cried out as he shot to Tim who easily dodged the attack hiding towards him. The Venom man growled at this and more cries from the crowd called for blood to be spilled.

"**His blood would taste delicious due to his unique type, right, Timothy?" **

He narrowed his eyes and watched as the Venom influenced man moved to attack him again until Tim was suddenly in his face, his eye now turned to black and red. He sent a punch flying at the monster as if it were cardboard, easily breaking his nose. The monster swore loudly as he backed up a few steps then glared at him, seeing Tim's eye mutated now.

"_What the fuck are you?" _he said and Tim felt his self-control slip as he grinned wide from under his mask.

Other people from the crowd started to complain about no bloodshed just yet while others made even more bets against Tim, cash running between their fingers. The Venom monster grabbed Tim by the throat and Tim waited to speak his reply. Jason stood in the back waited for something to happen and unknown to him, the Scarecrow stood nearby in normal civilian clothes to observe the speciation about to begin.

"I am a monster created by man." He replied as the Venom monster scowled, trying to regain his composure. The monster then raised his fist to catch him off guard with an easy attack but Tim caught it in his hand and suddenly the red tentacles from his fight with Devin erupted from his back. They waved in ready to attack as they inched closer to the Venom monster, moving to piercing vital organs such as his lung, spine, and heart.

"_But monsters aren't always created by men by but their own selfish desires to protect others from harm."_He stated as the Venom monster started shaking in terror at Tim, releasing his grip on Tim's throat. Then with his one free hand unzipped the mouth. A large grin was seen from underneath the mask as he moved closer to man and opened his mouth wide along with a crazed look in eyes.

"**Now, will you take the pleasure of being my supper today?" **


	5. Chapter IV: ScAr

**AN: Thank you guys for reviewing, favoriting, following, and reading! I'm glad you guys enjoyed the previous chapter so much since I did also, leaving it with that cliff hanger! So here's the next chapter to enjoy! **

* * *

**I do not own Batman or any other DC characters. **

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter IV**

* * *

**ScAr**

"_Heroes always have their scars. Some you can see, some you read about later on." –George Foreman_

* * *

"**TiMoThY! TaKe A bItE!" **a voice resonated in his skull as he took charge to the man, pinning him to the ground with the red tentacles at both arms and stomach, piercing through skin and muscles of the Venom influenced man. The man cried out in pain and Tim's grin grew even larger, tilting his head to the side.

"**Would your flesh travel down my throat in a river of crimson? Or would I have to chew it into mice meat so I could devour it whole?" **Tim asked him as salvia started dribbled down his lips, control no longer existent in his thoughts of consciousness. The crowd around them started in deciding if staying would be the best option.

Jason, though in the crowd, keep his hand close to his gun so he could easy put Tim down for a moment if need be. Under his helmet, he watched in focus as his younger brother pull one tentacle out of the man, slowly and painfully. He brought it up to his mouth and watched as blood dripped down onto the ground.

"**Now, would your blood taste sweet or sour?" **he asked before running his hand on the tentacle, trailing blood onto the glove. He began licking it from the glove and euphoria erupted throughout his taste buds.

"**Fuckin' tasty blood you got. More sweet than I prefer but it is rather delicious compared to normal human blood." **He said and looked back down to his victim, bending on his knees and grabbed the man's leg. The Venom man's eyes grew incredibly large as Tim put pressure onto it and started pulling, a sadistic glint shined bright in his eye. He moved his mouth down to the man's leg, ready to chomp down on a piece.

"HEY! YOU CAN'T LEAVE A TRACE OF DNA OR YOU'LL BE CAUGHT, DUMBASS!" Jason called out from the crowd and Tim paused at this, a scowl on apparent on his face. Turning to him with a crazed expression on his face and a smile replacing his scowl.

"**Not unless I eat him whole." **He replied and Jason swore under his breath, pulling his gun out and started moving to the ring.

"Fucking idiot." He swore under his breath and then Tim started pulling the tentacle down the Venom man's arm, tearing through muscles and nerves. He shivered at the expression the man was giving him and then grabbed his leg again, pulling at it with all his strength.

The sound of glass breaking resonated throughout the place and the crowd looked up to see Batman and Nightwing dropping down on them. They all started to panic as many fled in attempt that they wouldn't catch them. Batman stared at Tim with narrowed eyes under his mask before Tim paused at his torture victim, looking up to him.

"**Can't you see that I'm busy? I was about to gorge on this feast." **He stated and Nightwing winced at his voice, chills being shivered down his spine.

"Who the hell are you?" Batman asked and Tim paused at this, turning to Jason who waited for Batman to make a move.

"**I am a monster created by man." **He stated, repeating himself from a few moments ago, and stepped away from his opponent, who lay on the ground crying out in pain.

"Hey, kid! Don't start taking up a fight!" Jason called and the other stared at him with confusion written across their face.

"**You've been taking all my fun away." **Tim said and slowly started walking towards him, his boots echoing around them, **"And I know bullets don't work on me. The only way to defeat me is through something else completely-and I know you don't have it on you."**

Jason scowled even more from under is helmet before a WingDing was tossed at Tim's shoulder, managing to get lodged in the outfit and some of his skin. He looked to it before grabbing it and pulled it right out of his shoulder, the wound already closing up from his healing capabilities.

"**Dumbass, didn't I just say that bullets don't work on me? Why did you think that something like this would actually slow me down?" **Tim said and Nightwing gulped at this, quickly realizing his mistake. Tim placed the WingDing in one his many pockets and grinned wildly at him.

"**Would you like to become my supper instead of the meat sack?" **he asked with his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth, suddenly charging at Nightwing. Jason then started chasing after him, trying his best to beat him but something else shot in front of Nightwing, taking the bite for him.

A small cry of pan escaped Damian Wayne's mouth as Tim quickly gnawed off a piece of Damian's arm, flesh and muscle tearing off in an instant. Blood seeped onto the ground and across Tim's body. His swallowed it whole before taking notice of who he had bitten into.

His eyes extremely large as Damian fell to the ground, grasping his wound tight as a pool of blood formed at their feet. He slide to a stop and began to tremble at the sight of his younger step-brother bleeding profoundly from a wound he gave him.

_Oh god, what the fuck did he do to is younger brother? _

_He's a freakin' monster._

He placed his hands in front of his face and then whispered, "What the fuck is wrong with me?"

"God fucking damnit kid!" Jason shouted as he then scooped up the preteen from off the ground who shouted to be released as he started running out of the place with Batman trailing behind him, a scowl of concern written on his face. Meanwhile Nightwing held anger across his features and Tim remained motionless before looking at the ceiling seeing the rusty pipes. He scowled and quickly cut the one of the many structure lines with the tentacles, crashing the pipes between them and making him have an escape plan.

Nightwing cursed at this and trailed out the other way but by the time he got around Tim was already gone in the shadows of the night.

* * *

"Stupid ass kid." Jason swore as he continued running through the alleyway with Batman right behind him in pursuit. He scowled under his helmet and made a quick glance to see Damian no longer conscious, clutching his wound tightly with blood seeping between his fingers. He swore again as he took another quick turn, almost bumping into Tim as he turned into the corner.

His one present eye grew wide as he passed by him and almost ran into Batman who slide to a stop them. He gulped and Batman narrowed his eyes under his cowl, taking stance to fight Tim. Tim licked his lips, blood tickling his tongue of the tangy taste, and the tentacles from his back then started disappearing into thin air.

"What exactly are you?" Batman asked and Tim stood still, trying to produce a plan so he would not injure another one of his family members.

"He is under my jurisdiction, Bats. I took him under my wing when he had fallen. He holds no name but the calling of the _Gantai_ or _Guru._"

They looked up to the top of the roof top seeing Jason holding Damian over his shoulder and a gun pointed to Batman's head.

"Now, I suggest you stay away or you won't get the Bat Brat back in the shape you want him." Jason commented and Batman scowled at this as Tim took that as note to go run and lay low for a while. Batman dropped his stance but his fists still clenched at his side, glaring at Jason as he casually walked away with both his youngest son and his assaulter.

* * *

Dick Grayson swore as he sat down in Batman's chair and stared at the footage Batgirl and Black Bat managed to capture of the fight. The _monster _had taken a _bite _out of his younger, managing to actually chew off skin and muscle from the younger boy that would probably never heal properly again. Batgirl and Black Bat stared at the footage with a look of disgust at the sight of blood and the ferociously put into that attack.

"What exactly is that _thing_?" Batgirl questioned with a snarl on her face and Dick started to try pull up face identification on the _thing_, seeing if anyone could match _it. _

"I have no idea but I plan on finding out and putting the guy through no mercy." He said and the computer beeped, showing up no identity. He cursed again and then started the program again, just basing it off of _its _hair color being bright red.

"What kind of monster could eat humans?" Batgirl questioned yet again and Black Bat narrowed her eyes at the erratic movements and crazed posture that _it _was demonstrating.

"Look at fighting style." She commented and the two other Bats blinked at this before turning back to the screen staring at it. They observed the way he moved before engaging the Venom monster, managing to easily block attacks and dodge them before starting up. Then once the tentacles came out, his fighting style became deranged and savaged, something completely different than a few moments ago.

"It's as if he were completely different person." Nightwing whispered and Black Bat nodded.

"He has good fighting." She stated and walked towards the computer before having a model repeat his movements on a fake environment, "It similar to other movement. Try and find based on fighting style."

Nightwing nodded at this before digging up more information on different fighting styles to compare what exactly _it_ was using. He turned to them before saying, "This is going to take some time to compel data. How about you two try to convince Tim to help with this case?"

Batgirl scowled at this, remembering Tim's expression few days ago, and stalked away, hiding to the showers to clean off the grim and sweat from the day. Black Bat though began her exit to go find her step-brother and ask for his help.

* * *

"What the hell was that?!" Jason yelled at Tim as he rested Damian down on his sofa and Tim sank down in a chair, staring at his hands that were uncovered.

"I…don't know." He replied with a shaky voice and ran his fingers through his hair, "I got lost to my hunger and anger. My desire grew stronger than my will." Jason scowled at this as he took a quick swig of beer from one of his many bottles lying around. He turned to Tim then hit him on the head, knocking the wind out of his breath.

"Idiot, do you know what exactly you did?" he hissed at him and pointed to Damian, "Now that you bite him, I need to clean the wound and make sure there is no trace of DNA left on it. I flat out said to not even take a chance or DNA could catch you."

Tim nodded at this before glancing at his younger brother with guilt written all over his face at the fact that he did what he hallucinated.

"Oh god, I'm a monster." He stated and Jason frowned at the words that escaped Tim's mouth before sighing.

"Listen, kid, you are not a monster. The monsters are the people that did _this_ to you." He said as an attempt to comfort Tim and ran his and through his hair, "The brat will be fine once we clean up the wound and remove the DNA from it. Once that's done, I'll deliver him to the Cave and you won't have to carry the weight of the guilt."

Tim remained frozen as Jason picked Damian up and headed to the bathroom with him in hand. He took one more glance at him before shutting the door and locking so he could help Damian heal up.

"**See Timothy? Didn't I tell you that his blood and flesh would be delicious?" **

He snapped up to face _him_ again, smirking down at him with his blood red eyes and black sclera. His hair nearly drenched over his shoulders and into the face of Tim, clouding his vision in red locks. His teeth pure white despite eating and devouring humans as his grin grew wider at the sight of Tim's large blue eyes.

"You-!" Tim exclaimed but the man quickly placed his gloved hand over Tim's mouth to silence him.

"**Now, now, Timothy. You wouldn't want to alarm him when he is trying to help the younger brother that you took a little bite of." **_He _said and removed _his _hand from Tim's mouth as he bite down on it. _He _started walking the place and picked up a bottle of beer, staring down at it before placing it back on the counter.

"Why are _you_ here?" Tim hissed under his breath and the man turned back to him, a smile gracing his features.

"**Ah, right to question. Just like the first time we met." **_He _said and Tim scowled as the memories started to overflow his brain, causing him to flashback to his first time meeting _him. _

* * *

"_Excuse me, young man," a man with a cane in hand and a baggy cloak covered his body while coughing that sounded like a dry heave said in perfect English. Tim turned to him and watched as other passed him by but he moved towards him, knowing if the man was sick he should bring him to a hospital. He walked over to him and asked also in English "Are you ok, sir?"_

"_Oh, thank you, young man. I'm just having trouble with carrying these boxes to my apartment but my back and sickness has been kicking in. Would you mind helping me? I'll give you some money also in return." The man said in English and Tim shrugged at this, not having any trouble with it since he knew some others are like the man. _

"_I have no problem with it sir. Now how about you direct me towards where your house is and I'll go help you." Tim said with a smile and the man nodded at this, another cough wheezing up on him. Tim then picked up the boxes that seemed to weigh more than normal and shrugged at this as the man started walking away, towards a construction site. _

"_How old are you young man?" the man asked as a flash of red hair glimmered out from his cloak. _

"_I just turned nineteen a few months ago." He replied and the man nodded at this, coughing again as they then walked into the construction site. They passed by some bricks, concrete truck, conveyor systems, glass, fire suppression equipment, wood, and above their head were steel bars slightly swinging in the gust of wind. _

_The wind then blew the hood of the cloak past his shoulders to reveal crimson hair in the moonlight and he paused at the sight of a construction sign saying workers at work. Tim stared at him before narrowing his eyes as the man then dropped his cane and turned to him. _

_Violet eyes that held madness stared at him and then something erupted from his back in the form of red tentacles. Tim's eyes grew wide at the sight of them and dropped the boxes in his hands, opening to reveal a gush of blood and guts erupted from them. He paled and backed away even more as two heads rolled out also. _

_Horrified expressions were lit out on the faces with flesh and bones still hanging out from their heads, blood coating their faces and dribbled down from their mouth. _

"_What the FUCK?" he exclaimed and then the man's eyes transformed to red irises and the whites of his eyes black. He chuckled and then launched an attack at Tim with the tentacles, all four of them moving to attack him. He quickly jumped out of the way and swore as he attempted to find some hidden weapon to fight back. _

_Suddenly two of the tentacles grabbed him by the feet and he clawed at the ground, his fingers bleeding as the tentacles pulled him back to the men. The tentacles held him upside down and he struggled to be released as blood rushed to his head and got him dizzy. _

"_**Nice try, kid." **__He said and then slammed Tim into a metal fence, causing it to fall over and pain raking throughout his body. Tim coughed out blood and shakily stood up on his feet, glaring at the man as he held his broken right arm to his body and blood pooling out from an open wound. Smoke and dust erupted from the bricks and glass now smashed around them. He pulled out his bo stick from his pocket and held it up in defense, ready for the man to attack him again. _

"_**Kid, you're at the perfect age to be eaten!" **__the man said as he shot through the smoke and dust and the tentacles now wrapped around on each limb, forcing him to drop the bo staff. He scowled and glared at the man as one tentacle launched into his stomach, blood pooling out from his fresh wound. His eyes grew wide at the pain and the man laughed at this, pulling the tentacle quickly out and blood coating it. The man bought a finger to it and licked it right off, a sadistic glee moving across his face. _

"_**I'm going to gently scramble up you insides for you now, okay?" **__he stated and Tim hassled to be let free, blood spitting out of his side even more. He tossed the late teen to another fence and Tim felt his consciousness slip from the amount of blood he was losing. _

_Then suddenly the sound a wires being snapped caused the man to look up, his eyes growing wide at the sight of steel bars splintering on his body. The red tentacles evaporating into thin air and blood pooling out from the man's head and eye, crushing him to death. _

"_**How…?" **__he said as his last words as Tim's blue eyes became glassy and a smaller steel bar piercing his abdomen caused even more bleeding, knowing he could actually be dying due to an attempt of helping a man. _

He winced as he returned to reality but the man still stood in front of him with frown across his features before walking around, taking in the scenery around them.

"**Did you see something interesting, Timothy? Or had I opened up old scars?" **_he _asked and Tim stood up, glaring up at him before moving up and stood still in front of him.

* * *

"Hallucinations are just a sensory experience of something that does not exist outside the mind. So I can easily move through you and the hallucination will end." He muttered to himself then started walking before bumping into _him_ and tripped back. His eyes grew wide at the fact and wanted to tremble at the fact that he couldn't go _through him _to break the hallucination.

"**You think science and logical thought can save you? You're very mistaken. You want to think that I'm a hallucination but am much more than that to your subconscious, Timothy. I may have 'died' that day but my conscious continues to live throughout your mind by that transplant with my parts inside of you. You need me to survive the hunger taunting you every single waking moment!" **_he _began explaining to Tim and grabbed his head, forcing his eyes to stare deep into the maddening black and red eyes.

"**You can't hold onto your sanity if you didn't have me by your side! I am your balance between the hunger and your sanity! You could never survive without my existence living in your brain! You believe I'm the one pulling your strings to make you go made and devour all but you are wrong! You are lying to yourself!" **_he _exclaimed and Tim trembled at _his _touch.

"_**You **_**are the one that wants to gorge on the humans! I can't project thoughts into your mind! Only you can change yourself! I am just holding those thoughts back for you because you believe that I am the bad guy! That's the thing with humans, they all want to pass the blame to someone else and call them evil. Humans are so arrogant, trying to avoid the role of the villain from all sides of conflict. You are all monsters and villains. There is no such thing as a hero in this world. There is only villains against villains." **_he _explained to Tim who tried to ignore _his _words filled with truth and closed his eyes, gripping his fists tight.

"You're not real." He whispered to himself and then placed his hands to his ears, blocking out _his _screams of what _he _proclaimed was the truth.

"Kid, what the hell are you doing?"

Jason's voice recalled him to reality and he blinked to see him staring at him with concern written in his blue eyes before placing some bloody scissors, needle, and cloth onto his dinner table. Tim couldn't help but lick his lips at the sight and smell of Damian's blood on the kitchen table.

"Nothing, just thinking about something. It's nothing to be worried about." He said and ran his fingers through his hair, "How is he?"

Jason grinned and then grabbed a bar of soap off his kitchen counter while trying on the water. He began washing his hands and announced over the sound of water, "He'll be fine. I cleaned up the wound and washed it out with alcohol so the DNA is removed somewhat until the wound is completely closed. That should take about a couple days with dousing the wound in alcohol."

"So…what are we going to do with him?" Tim asked and Jason shut the water off, drying his hands on his pants.

"I'll have someone watch over him so he won't escape and have Bruce finding out who wounded him." Jason said and Tim stared at him with disbelief written on his face.

"You're leaving him with someone I have no clue about or that he could defeat them and go back to the Cave?" Tim questioned him and Jason raised an eyebrow at this.

"The person I'm thinking of can taking care of the Bat Brat. And if need be, I can give him some medicine that will make sure that he can't escape if that makes you feel slightly better." Jason stated and Tim narrowed his eyes at this, grinding his teeth together.

"No, it not does not Jason. Who are you thinking of?" Tim asked and Jason sighed, pulling out his cellphone before beeping up a number and name. He flashed Tim the number and Tim's eyes grew wide at the name of the person.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Tim exclaimed and felt his anger building up at the sight of her name, "You think Talia al Ghul is the perfect person to watch over him?! She's tried to kill him ever since he joined Bruce."

Jason sighed at this and then started dialing up the number, saying to Tim, "I helped her out with something a few months ago so she owes me. She won't do anything to the kid but watch over him and keep him from Bruce's arms."

"But that's exactly what she wants to do! She wants to keep Damian no matter the cost! I'd rather him find out it was me that bite him than have her take care of him!" he snarled at his older brother who narrowed his eyes.

"Really? Then go call up Bruce and the others and confess about actually happened in Japan and what it has made you do to younger brother." Jason said as he tossed another phone to Tim who easily caught it but stared down at it with horror. He looked up to Jason who waited for him to call but even though he announced to him that he would do, he couldn't force himself to press the buttons to call. He scowled and tossed the phone to the wall, easily shattering the case.

"Fine." Tim snarled at him while Jason smirked at this, "Go call her up but don't go crying to me that she kidnapped him or hurt him again."

"Whatever, kid. Call me when you need to replenish your supplies." He said and Tim opened his side window before jumping down below to leave the conversation alone.

* * *

Cass stared at Tim's apartment and walked around it with narrowed eyes that it was kept so neat when he usually had papers and other documents laying around or news clipping hung up on the wall connecting to other stories. She walked through the place and noticed even smaller differences in with items out of place.

Then something seemed to be dripping from his mini-fridge and she blinked at this, thinking he must have forgotten to plug in. She sighed and leaned down to it before moving to plug it in but the smell of copper invaded her nose and want to plug it up. She moved her hand to open it but the sound of a door opening caused her to hide behind the counter of it, holding her breath so Tim wouldn't find out she was there.

"Even after that, I'm still hungry." Tim muttered and sighed, moving to the mini-fridge as Cass sneakily moved to a different angle. He opened it up and the smell grew even more, causing her to cover her mouth from nearly gagging at it. He pulled out an item wrapped in tin foil and salvia began to build up at the corner of his mouth while Cass narrowed her eyes at this. He began to unwrap it and her eyes grew wider every second that he had unwrapped it, a crimson liquid spilling from the edges of the tin foil and dripping over the side of the counter.

Then she saw pull up a piece of-_what she hoped was_-raw meat, dripping the crimson liquid all over his face. It slithered its way down his lips to his chin and back on the floor. She paled at the sight of but before noticing that the color was extremely familiar to _human _blood. He placed the whole piece in his mouth before she took a glance at the piece but instead of animal meat, she saw the sight of _human flesh _attached to muscles.

After placing the piece of meat in his mouth, he saw her staring up at him with horror and he returned that gaze to her too with his black and red eye and blood stained mouth.


	6. Chapter V: ClOuDbUrSt

**Replies to Comments: **

**Guest: I hope this more mixed up for you! Thanks for the comment, it made me write harder for this chapter to make it different from the others so I hope it worked! **

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**I do not own Batman or any other DC characters. **

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**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter V**

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**ClOuDbUrSt**

"_Was I prone to sadness and melancholy? How could anyone like that? It wasn't that I wanted it; it was that I was so used to hard rains, I couldn't help expecting a cloudburst every time something nice happened and sunshine beamed down over me." –V.C. Andrews, Pearl in the Mist_

* * *

It didn't take long at all to take action as she quickly darted to the window but Tim had already appeared in front of her. His eyes large and the mutilated iris quivered at the sight that Cass watched him eat flesh. Her chocolate eyes grew in horror that she was spotted and he grabbed her arm, forcing her to him. Blood dripped down his chin onto the floor and her voice froze from being unable to describe what she had seen him do.

"Cass," he whispered and she struggled to be released from his grip but his inhuman strength toppled all of her training. She forced her head away and tried to ignore him calling her name.

"What the hell am I going to have to do?" he asked himself out loud now that she had been caught and narrowed his eyes, moving his hand above her neck. He pinpointed the base of her neck then chopped at it, easily knocking her out by his attack. Her eyes shuttered close and dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Tim walked over her and crouched down in front of her face, staring into her sleeping face. Her charcoal bobbed hair fell over his delicate nose and closed eyes, but reached pass the nape of her neck and showed her tanned neck. Her oriental features stood out in the darkness of his apartment and he stood back up, running his bloody fingers through his hair.

"Guess I'll have to figure something out." He stated and then grabbed her legs, pulling her to his bed room. She gave no fight against it as he put her on top of the velvet covers. She groaned and he looked to his desk, opening up a bunch of drawers. Pencils, weapons, papers, multiple cell phones, and other items he used for both his college life and vigilante life. There he found duct tape and military grade paracord rope and started bounding her wrists together, tying the rope as tight as he could. He winced at the force he was doing but he didn't want her to wake up from something easy to escape from. He pulled the rope to the bed frame then moved to her legs, wrapping the rope around her ankles and pulled them closely together.

He sighed at this then pulled out a cell phone, quickly pulling up Jason's number and got ready to hit the call button but stopped at the thought of asking for help again. He bite his lip at this then closed out of Jason's number and turned back to Cass's unconscious body.

_What was he supposed to do with her now? _

"**You could eat her." **

He paused at the voice and clenched his fist at the voice of _him_, turning to face the hallucination pushing some of Cass's hair aside from her neck. Her skin glowing from the moonlight outside that reflected in and her breath swallow from her unconscious state.

"She's family. I will _NOT _eat her." He stated out loud and moved back to his kitchen, moving to his refrigerator to grab more flesh to eat. His stomach rumbled in agreement and bent down as more aluminum wrapped flesh greeted his eyes. He licked his lips and grabbed two more, a small grin appearing on his face.

"**Yet you continue to ignore your urges and eat normal flesh from the dead. Don't you miss the taste of flesh struggling to break free once you chomp down on it? The pleasure it delivers to you?" **

"Flesh is still the same no matter what." He replied and opened up one foil, the smell and the touch of blood sliding down his fingertips with the warmth of it pleasuring him. He picked it up and placed it above his mouth, small droplets of blood trickling his throat. He took a rather large bite and the lump of meat, fat, muscle, and skin sat between his tongue and teeth. He chewed and chewed until he was satisfied with swallowing it, the piece of flesh traveling down his throat and would continue until it would hit his stomach.

He breathed out and then placed the remaining piece of meat in his mouth, doing the same thing again to reduce is hunger. He chewed and let his tongue lick up any taste of the blood, muscle, skin, and fat to keep himself from wanting any more.

But that did the exact opposite.

* * *

Jason tapped his fingers against his crossed arms as he waited for Talia al Ghul to arrive with just herself and something _special _he ordered just in case Tim got out of hand. He reached into his pocket to pull out one of his cell phones, glancing at the time and seeing if any messages were left but none greeted him. A knock at the door got him out of his trance and he moved to it, with a Beretta 92G in his left hand and pointed to the door ready to fire a shot at someone he didn't like.

He took a glance at the peep hole before seeing long brown hair tied up in a clip with dirty brown eyes glaring also through her sunglasses. She covered herself in a long brown trench coat but black tights reached pass the bottom of the trench coat and in one hand she held a silver suitcase while in the other was a knife. He grinned at this then unlocked the door before opening it up and said, "Nice of you to make it."

She narrowed her eyes underneath her sunglasses before walking in, her knife still drawn as he closed the door behind her. He keep the gun but lowered it a little until Talia placed the suitcase down and moved the knife into a hidden pocket.

"So, why did you call me here for?" she asked and removed her sunglasses, "If you think I'm here to make another deal with you after failing to complete your last one then you're wrong."

"It's not like that at all actually." Jason began as he placed his gun down and brought out a lit cigarette from his ash tray, placing it between his lips, "You know about _Project G_, right?"

She froze at the mention of this before her blade appeared back in her hand again.

"Why does that matter, Jason?" she hissed at him then he took out a different cell phone, tossing it to her. She stared at it before he nodded to her to open it up and her eyes grew wide at the sight of the screen, horror written across her features.

"Well, one of 'em, got out and now little red robin is stuck in a situation because of it." Jason said and breathed in the toxic fumes of his cigarette before it rushed out from his mouth and nostrils.

"How did this happen?" she mumbled and he chuckled at this, picking up the case then placing it on the table.

"From the looks of it, _it _got out without you guys taking any notice of it and started to kill others to survive until little red got caught in it and ended up like that." He replied and she snapped the phone shut before tossing it back to him which he caught effortlessly.

"Why did you not contact me sooner?" she hissed with anger now lighting up her features.

"Because it wasn't as bad as it seemed until a day ago that things started blowing up in my face." He snapped back and took the cigarette out, tapping it against the side of his table.

"By what do you mean, 'blowing up in my face'?" she questioned and he sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

"Why don't you come see the damage that he caused to your son and you'll understand." He said and she paled at this, now understanding that something was definitely wrong with the situation at hand.

* * *

Dick Grayson walked towards Timothy Drake's apartment with worry and concern since no one had heard from Cass in over a few hours after saying she would go ask for help in the case that Damian had been taken by Red Hood and his mysterious thug, _Gantai_. He sighed and pressed the buzzer to be let in to Tim's apartment, waiting for a quick "Ok" or "Just a minute".

Nothing.

"Uh, Tim, you there?" he asked but no one replied. He frowned at this then started walking to the side of the building where there was the fire escape to climb up to Tim's apartment. He looked around before jumping off the wall then twirled to land on one of the ladders, breathing out as he started climbing to Tim's apartment window.

He passed by a few that held there windows slightly open or even some that were yelling or even breaking objects around them. He then stopped at Tim's window which as was sealed shut and currents closed. He tapped gently on it, waiting for an answer but still nothing. He narrowed his eyes and pulled out a flat head screw driver then pushed it under the seal, using as much as possible before he heard a soft pop from the other side. He then pulled the window up and stalked inside as swiftly as possible, leaving the window open just in case for an emergency. He sighed then turned around but something sharp nearly hit him in the cheek.

He dodged it by bending back and watched as it slashed across the room but moved back in the direction it came from. Dick flipped over and stared into the darkness, trying to find the source where the object came from.

"**Fo…**ood…" something moaned from the darkness and Dick moved silently to find a light source so he knew were to defend and attack. Suddenly something wrapped around Dick's leg and his eyes grew wide as it pulled him to the ground, dragging him towards its owner. He scowled and tried to find something to break free from it but only had the screwdriver in hand.

_Hope this will work!_

He plunged it towards the thing but once it hit, the screwdriver bounced out of his hand and landed across the room to Dick's horror.

"Oh shit." He swore then it pulled tighter around his leg, slowly crushing his bones with painful force. He swore again before he was then hanged upside down to face whatever was in control of the thing. Heavy breathing was heard even from where he was and an outfit of pocketed black jeans and black combat boots was what he managed to catch in his vision.

"**Look who **it is!" it slashed out and then something else grabbed his arm, turning him up to face his attacker. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the monster mask and black and red eye stare at him with hunger.

"YOU!" he snarled out and it tilted its head to the side, heavy breathing pressed against its mask.

"**Ah…Night…**wing…" it said and craned its neck to the side before reaching to Dick's arm, moving his jacket and shirt down, **"I…didn't…**eat…you…"

"No, you sick bastard! You took a bite out of my little brother! You'll pay for that!" he snarled at it and it pulled the zipper across its mouth to see blood dribbling down from the corners of its mouth then parted in a grin. Its teeth shined crimson and chuckled at Dick's reaction.

"**He was…**delicious and…I didn't get to…**finish my meal…" **it stated and licked its lips, "I'm so…**fucking hungry!" **

Then without another say it moved to chomp down on his shoulder but something was tossed directly at it, slamming into its head. It screeched and pulled away while releasing Dick from its grasp where he flipped away turning to face Cass with a small knife in hand and something red dripping from her hand. Her face stern and ready for another attack but it clenched its face while its screech continuing to echo around them.

"GO! We need to move before it returns to focus on us!" she exclaimed while already moving to the window and running out with Dick following behind.

"Where the hell have you been?" he yelled up to her while she paused to look behind and see it crawling out the window, on all fours but the tentacles from its back reached to pierce them. She tossed the object bleeding from her hand and it turned its head to it, watching as it jumps up to get it. She continued to run down the steps, going three at a time as does Dick.

"Tied up. Will explain once we get away." She stated and he nodded at this, following her lead as she moved into the streets of Gotham, "Shouldn't follow us onto road if people are out."

"Good idea. We won't-" Dick began until it jumped in front of them, crushing the ground around them and the piece of meat between its teeth. They both paled as traffic stopped around it and people started screaming in horror at the sight of it.

"What?" they both questioned then it giggled.

"**Fooled…**you!" it exclaimed before swallowing the piece and went to move but stopped, staring at something behind them. They waited for it move until something jumped on top of it in attempt to crush it.

They all stared in astonishment at the sight of Red Robin trying to take it down with his bare hands.

"Get out of here, both of you!" he exclaimed at them and Cass stared at the both of them in horror, knowing that Tim was the monster but who could be in the suit?

Batman jumped up at the emergency signal activated by both Dick and Cass and rushed to the Bat mobile but a hand held out in front of him before he could do anything. He stopped to look down at the sight of Stephanie Brown in her Batgirl uniform with a stern face and her eyes narrowed.

"Let me come with you." She stated and he scowled at this before moving her arm down.

"No. you need to stay here just in case Jason drops Damian back off or if something else were to happen." He said while she frowned at it but slowly nodded, accepting defeat and turned to sit back down on the chair.

"Fine but if you do need more help, don't just wait for it but actually call for me to come." She told him and he grunted as a reply before jumping into the vehicle, speeding off in his son's and daughter's cry for help.

Jason swore as he just barely missed Tim's-no _Gantai's_-attack and flipped over the tentacle before landing on his feet, narrowing his eyes at the sight of the tentacles worming everywhere.

_How does Tim stand in this suit when it's so goddamn tight?! _

He waited for _Gantai _to make his move so he could go for attack against the tentacle or even itself. They circled each other until it let out another screech, moving to attack him but Jason ran right to it. He dodged its attacks in barely any break between until he caught himself running on one of the tentacles. He grinned madly then jumped up and reached to his back where he grabbed some sort of weapon from his back, pulling it up and moved to cut it down. He slammed the weapon down and saw as one tentacle split from its back break off then freeze in air before dissolving into thin air.

He grinned at this then slung the weapon back to attack but _Gantai _moved away, clenching at the empty place where the tentacle had laid. It hissed at Jason who pointed the weapon at him and licked his lips in anticipation.

"Bring it." He called at it before it charged at him again but he blocked the attack of oncoming tentacles with both the end and beginning of the weapon. It growled at him before moving itself to get closer distance. One of the two tentacles attacking Jason at the side while another went for the front of Jason but he was naturally dodging and twirling the weapon around him to block the attacks.

"Be careful, Tim!" Dick called out and Jason paused for just a second at his call, realizing they both thought he was their brother.

They truly cared for Tim.

_Then why did he feel so angry that they thought he was Tim? _

He turned back to _Gantai _then charged at it, hitting and using the end of the weapon to attack it.

"Come on, kid." He growled under his breath then raised in above his head and aimed to cut another tentacle but another grabbed his hand. He swore as it pulled him away and struggled to break free without making it a terrible injury.

"Fuck." He swore then pulled hard enough to snap his wrist and become useless to help balance the weapon in his least dominant hand.

"_Tim?" _

He ignored the call coming from the suit and took stance again as _Gantai _charged at him with the tentacles moving to face him head on. He swung the weapon and managed to hit one tentacle away while forcing another to the ground. He slammed it down and the tentacle shattered like the previous one to leave a singular one against him.

"Now, this will be easy." He stated and _Gantai _froze, trying to figure out a way to break from the situation, "Come on and show your true colors, kid."

Then _Gantai _grinned madly as he shot towards him and Jason also charged at him but _Gantai _jumped over him, shock crossing over Jason's features that it was actually ignoring him as a threat but towards the supple of food. He turned as quick as he could but still wasn't fast enough as it moved towards Dick and Cass. They stood frozen from the speed it was coming at them and tried to get out weapons but nothing could stop it.

"Get out of the way!" Jason called but something then sliced through the last tentacle, piercing through it and pinning it to the ground. It cried out in both anger and pain but Jason glanced up to see Talia with a bow in hand standing on one of the apartment buildings. He scowled and looked back down to it as it struggled to pull away without harming the last tentacle. He walked to it with the sound of his boots echoing around them and only cries of from the innocents surrounded them.

"Do you understand it now?" he whispered and dragged his weapon towards it, screeching coming from it, "You need to stop it right now. What you're doing is not helping your situation anymore."

"**Soooooo HU**nrgy….I need….**flesh!" **it exclaimed and clawed to Dick and Cass, its tongue hanging lose from its mouth. Jason frowned at this before facing it and sighed at the sight of blood dribbling from all corners of its mouth and teeth turned pink from eating and chewing pieces of human flesh between them. Its eye of black and crimson spoke only in madness and insanity with its black hair dripping blood from the tips.

"So fucking pitiful you've become." Jason whispered under his breath and then it stopped, taking deep breathes.

"**That's…**mine!" it cried as it reached to grab the cowl off of Jason's face and without any thinking, he plowed his weapon right into its hand. It cried out in pain and swore wildly before looking up to Jason with hatred only towards him.

"What do you plan on doing with it, Red Robin?" Dick asked from behind him and Jason took a deep breath before turning to him. The hope and pride in Dick eyes caused Jason to almost shake from the fury that Tim was to do no good and was always right on it.

He looked back to it then pulled his weapon out its hand, causing blood to spill for a brief second before the wound began to close. He ignored Dick's call until he swept right through the tentacle and caused it to dissolve into nothing but air. It gasped as if it were pain and collapsed face flat to the ground unconscious. He pulled the arrow from Talia's shot out of the ground before turning back to it with disappointment written in his eyes and bent down to its face. He grabbed it by the hair and it winced to consciousness, the one open eye returning back to its normal baby blues.

"Are you awake now?" Jason hissed at him and Tim slowly blinked at this before realizing that Jason was bearing his uniform with Dick right behind him. He moved to cover his eye up but Jason instead hit him with his weapon, knocking his gaze down.

"Listen to me carefully," he hissed in his ear and Tim coughed up blood, "You need to make a break for it. Go to my safe house and don't look back. I'm going to do something really stupid."

Tim looked up and opened his mouth to say something but Jason then swung his fist around to Dick, hitting him in the ribs. Shock ruled over his features as he got knocked down and salvia spat out from his lips then scowled when he landed on his shoulders. Tim quickly took this as a signal to run as he jumped up still in confusion as he headed to the buildings surrounding them.

"You cannot escape."

He swore as Cass then charged at him with a small knife in hand, chasing right behind him. He then stopped and turned to her, ready to attack his own sister.

_I'm going to hurt someone again._

He didn't want to attack her.

She looked to him and saw the terror and fear erode into his baby blue eye, realizing that he wouldn't be able to control himself if he was to fight. She also stopped and dropped her blade, her gaze going even further than his fear and terror but towards his own fight against his newly grown instincts.

"You…never wanted this…did you?" she whispered but also asked him and he dropped his gaze to the ground before dashing off again, despite her no longer after chasing him.

* * *

A call echoed from the nearly empty apartment of Jason Todd's when Talia al Ghul glanced down to her private cell phone that held no tracker on it. She stared at the unknown number before pressing to answer the call. She brought it to her ear and asked, "Who the hell is this?"

"_Miss al Ghul, correct? I'm calling about the young lad who got bite by the _Gantai _last night. I was wondering how he was doing." _The other side said and Talia glanced around the room, seeing if any cameras of microphones were going to record her talk.

"What do you want, Crane?" she hissed and moved to the bedroom where her son laid on the bed in a drug induced coma. His arm all wrapped up and a blanket covering most of his body.

"_What I want is the creature that bite the boy and who crippled a man for life. You know what it is and who it is too." _Scarecrow said into the phone and then a cry was heard from his side of the line, _"If you do not then that young lad will die." _

She froze at his words and moved to look down at the boy before realizing that even the boy laying on the bed looked like her son, it was not. She moved one eyelid open to stare at a brown iris, unmoving and breathed out again. She clenched her fist before asking, "Fine. I'll deliver him straight to your doorsteps and the boy will not be harmed as of right now."

Scarecrow chuckled at this and said, _"Good. Now you know the shipping docks? We'll trade right there. See you soon, Ms. Al Ghul." _


	7. Chapter VI: CaPtIvItY

**Reviews: **

**To .73: I hope you'll enjoy this chapter because this chapter when everything will go down an even darker path after this. Thanks for the previous comment also! I appreciate it! So enjoy! **

* * *

**I do not own Batman orang other DC character.**

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter VI**

* * *

**CaPtIvItY**

_"__I've become a captive of my own ambitions." -Patsy Cline_

* * *

Jason was shoved down to his knees and a scowl written cross his features as Dick forced the cowl off his face. He blinked at the light and stared at the faces of Dick, Cass, Steph, and Bruce who all held anger in their eyes.

"Well, hello." he stated and then Dick smacked him across the face, grabbed the uniform in his fists tight.

"Where the hell is Damian?!" he snarled and Jason smirked at this, not knowing he carried more about the kid than Tim.

"Oh? You care about the Bat Brat more than the Replacement? Now that's a development." Jason said and Dick's eyes grew large at his statement, opening his mouth to protest it but Bruce asked something else, "Why are you in the Red Robin uniform, Jason?"

"There ya go! That's the big question I've been waiting to hear." Jason said and spat out a chunk of blood from his clash with Tim, "Because I decided to piss the Replacement off more than usual this week."

Bruce narrowed his eyes at this and said, "Jason stop lying to us. Tell me what exactly happened. You did this for a reason. You let the monster run free."

Jason rolled his eyes at this, ignoring the Bats question and Cass then said, "I know…something…"

They all turned to her voice and Jason's eyes grew wide at the fact that she may have been the one that Tim was planning on eating first. She gulped and looked down to the ground, anxiety growing on her. Bruce placed his hands on her shoulders and she looked up to him, seeing that she wasn't going to put the blame on him.

"What is it, Cassandra?" he asked her gently and she glanced at Jason's nervous blue eyes before licking her lips.

"The monster…it doesn't…mean to hurt others." she answered and they all blinked her response. Jason breathed in silently that she hadn't given away Tim's secret as she opened her mouth to explain but the sound of a cell phone broke the silence. Jason swore as he realized that was one of his many cell phones, probably getting a call from Tim saying that he had made it back to his safe house. Dick moved towards Jason and began to dig through his many pockets, pulling apart and scattering his many objects.

Then he grabbed the flip phone from the pocket and flipped it open. He placed it to his ear and answered, "Hello?"

_"__Jason?" _the voice questioned and Dick's eyes grew wide at the voice, _"Where is the _Gantai_? I need to speak with him." _

"Talia?" Dick questioned and Bruce's eyes grew large at the fact that the call was from Talia.

_"__Richard?" _the voice questioned back and Dick scowled before tossing the phone to Bruce who caught it in his hands, bringing it up to his ears.

"What to do you want with Jason, Talia?" Bruce asked and there was silence before a dial tone answered him back. He scowled and narrowed his eyes at this, looking towards Jason who held no emotion on his face from the fact that it wasn't Tim.

"Would you like to explain yourself Jason?" Bruce questioned Jason who smirked at this and spat at Batman's feet. Dick's thoughts began to run wild at the sound of Talia's voice and Damian's disappearance before putting two and two together.

"Bruce, what if Jason gave Damian to Talia?" Dick suggested and Bruce's eyes grew wide at the suggestion, all of the Bat family then moved towards Jason at the input.

"You think I would let Talia take the Bat Brat then you're more stupid than the kid's anger issues." Jason stated and rolled his eyes at their belief.

Then, out of nowhere the roar of a motorcycle echoed the Bat Cave and one rolled through the Bat Cave, quickly parking next to the Bat Mobile. The figure wore all black besides his helmet that was crimson red and he pulled it right off. Jason's eyes widen at the sight of Tim staring at Bruce with worry written across his face along with his eyepatch not appearing over his normally mutated eye. Instead of black and red, baby blues greeted the them all as he walked towards them, asking, "What did I miss out?"

"Where the hell have you been?" Bruce questioned the late teen and Tim sighed at this, running his fingers through his hair.

"I've been running through security cameras to find footage of where the monster was previous to the fight. I'm also searching for where Jason hid Damian." he replied and the others besides Cass and Jason bought his lie.

"Did you find anything?" Dick asked and Tim shook his head no at this, a frown appearing across his face.

"Someone had messed with the camera I normally use and took them down, as if it knew that I had camera around the ring." Tim stated before kneeling down to Jason and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the Red Robin costume being worn by his adoptive brother, "Did you enjoy your time as a hero again Jason?"

"The fuck are ya talking about?" he said, understanding that Tim was trying to fool with the Bat family, and Tim rolled his eyes at this.

"Come on, the only reason you would steal my suit would be to pretend to be me is to become a hero again. You miss the glory of saving others. Not having the blood spilled on your hands and the smoke of your gun rise up from the shots you make." Tim stated and then forced Jason to look him in the eye, grabbing him by his hair, "Just admit it. It'll help you cope."

Jason growled at this and narrowed his eyes, quickly realizing something was going on in Tim's head that was now causing him to react more angry than normal.

_He's acting more brutal, _Jason thought and clenched his jaw tight, _Is he not under control? _

"Are you ok, Tim?" Jason whispered and Tim narrowed his eyes at this, angry written across his face.

"I'm fine. You, though, are not in a good spot. Look at you, trying so hard to be something that you're no longer a part of. How pathetic." Tim spat at him and Jason sighed at this.

"Tim," Bruce began and moved towards the late teen then he grasped his left eye as if he were pain, swearing loudly.

"FUCK!" he cursed and Steph slowly walked towards him, concern now light in her face and emotions bubbling up inside her again.

"Are you-?" she began until he removed his hand from his eye where his hair covered his eye and saw Jason trying to process what he was going to do.

"Get them…" Tim struggled to say the words, "Out of here…"

"Whatever you say, asshat." Jason mumbled before kicking the late teen in the stomach with his feet, facing the boy to the ground. The Bat Family advanced towards Jason besides Cass who looked at Tim in horror as something red started bubbling from his back. Her chocolate eyes growing wide and turned to the family before biting her lip then charged at them as they held no idea that she would be going after them. She brought her hand up, aiming for the next to Bruce's temple for a quick knock out. She swung with all her might, her hips twisting in action as the force of her punch aimed correctly at Bruce's head.

He didn't even see it coming as his brain rattled against his skull, knocking him out as Nightwing and Batgirl went to turn at this but Cass was already in action. He attempted to move in time but her next had her arms wrapped around his throat and pulled tight enough to make him slowly lose his breath. He gagged and struggled to get her off while Steph attempted to help out but she was prove worthless as Cass used her legs to aim below her jaw, causing Steph's eyes to roll to the back of her head and knocking her out. Dick grabbed Cass' her to pull her over him but now she wrapped her legs around his waist, only making it harder for the young man to win.

"Why…?" he gagged out as he finally gave up, his mind going blank and she heaved for breath as he fell on top of Bruce's unmoving body.

She heaved for breath as her noir hair fell onto her face and turned to Jason who held a look of empress on his face. He smirked at this before saying, "Now you untie me and I'll go deal with the kid. Go and hide the others while also keeping Alfred safe too. We don't need the kid to find him with no defense."

She nodded at this before quickly undoing the ropes around his wrists and legs with a switchblade. She then rushed to grab them all and began hauling them towards the elevator. Jason rubbed his wrists before looking to Tim who continued to spasm as the red tentacles developed.

**"****Did **they **leave**?" Tim manage to gag out and clutched his face hard in his hand, a sadistic glee appearing on his face but he tried to get ride of it.

"Yeah…now, why did you come here when you know that you're not in the best health to be here?" Jason asked and walked where the Bat Family had left the only weapon to fight Tim on equal par. He gripped it tight in his hand and Tim glanced at him, his one eye twitching from the transformation that was going on.

**"****I **didn't **want **to **hide **anymore…" he gagged out and then swore as the tentacles began to whip around him.

"You weren't so sure about that last time." Jason stated and frowned as Tim slowly brought himself back to his feet. He swayed side to side and pointed a finger towards him.

**"****You** have **something **that **belongs **to **me…**" Tim spat out as the tentacles eased up and pointed at Jason, **"I **need **that **to **be **Red **Robin, **I **need **to **protect **the **people **of **Gotham**." Jason scowled at Tim's speech and realized he was slowly losing his mind.

_The kid needs something to focus on as he gets hungry. If the suit is driving him to go that far just to claim it back then I should just return it. It could easily balance out his sanity. _

"I'll give ya suit back, kid. Just hold on a moment." Jason said before Tim slowly nodded at this, a blank expression painted across his face.

**"****Please…**I need **the **suit…" Tim panted before the tentacles swirled around him and moved over his head, as if to shield him. Jason quickly pulled the suit down, exposing his multiple scars and wounds to the late teen. Plus the familiar outline of a Y- autopsy scar was placed across his body. It had stretched up to his shoulder joint on each side to meet at mid-chest and ran far down his stomach, right near the top of his underwear. The scar was jagged and seen up well but it didn't hide the fact that he had been killed and brought back to life not as long as originally thought.

_That was the autopsy scar Jason had gotten when he was brought in to the hospital after he was killed. _Tim quickly realized and the tentacles began to disappear from his back, fading into nothing as Jason had gotten worse treatment than he by a land slide.

"You've been through hell and back more than me." Tim whispered out loud and Jason's narrowed his eyes at this while grinding his teeth at the fact. He continued to hold out the uniform and snarked back, "Are you going to take it or not, kid?

Tim glanced back down to the uniform before grabbing it out of Jason's hand and could feel himself relax mentally at the fact it was still his. Jason rummaged through the Bat Cave as he dug for something to cover himself before deciding on a black hoodie and cargo pants with sneakers.

"What happened to the others?" Tim asked and Jason smirked at this, pointing to the elevator.

"The chick took care of them for ya. She took them all out with barely a second thought. I'm impressed with her, wish I had someone like that with me." he replied and Tim narrowed his eyes at this before glancing down at his suit. He stared at it before saying, "Jason…do you think I can hide the truth much longer? With my reality distorting everything around me, I'm becoming a monster. I won't be able to hold a facade anymore. My resolve is cracking and my will is breaking. I wouldn't be surprised that I become one of the villains soon enough."

"There's no such things called villains or monsters, kid." Jason began and walked towards him, his feet treaded across the ground, "There's only people who fight against other people. There is no such thing called a hero. Look at me, I was a 'hero' but that term was reduced to 'fallen hero', once I died. Is a 'fallen hero' not the same as a villain? So, would I be considered a 'villain' now that I'm alive again or a 'hero' since I am no longer 'fallen'?"

Tim froze at his words and opened his mouth to say something but he couldn't figure out what.

"Villains are just 'heroes' who have 'fallen' from their grace. But what is grace then? Is it something attained or something born from birth? Villains are not born evil. The just 'fall' from trying to be the hero so long." Jason said and Tim took notice of the dull and blank look on Jason's face, realizing he must have some sort of form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"Look at Dick for an example, he was fading from being Robin as someone viewed as a hero. That's why he had given up Robin, he traded it for becoming a new 'hero' called Nightwing. But that facade won't last for much more as you witnessed his brutality towards finding the Bat Brat.

"Look at me, I was losing my grip of being a 'hero' faster than Dick. I had started picking up the ways of the 'fallen heroes'. Then as my last act as a hero, I attempted to save my mother but look where that got me. Dead. A 'fallen hero'. A villain as I was awaken from Hell, pulling back to this Hell called Earth and I killed men because I could handle being back as 'hero'. I was brought back broken, a man with that lost all his heroism.

"Look at Bruce, he's fading away because his will is so strong that one day he may actually slip up. He's beaten so many 'villains' that he will either die a hero or live long enough to become the 'villain'." Jason said in monotone voice and sighed, pushing his hair back with his hand.

"Jason, we should get going and go to your safe house. I fear something bad is going down." Tim stated as to snap Jason of his trance who simply nodded at this statement, bending down to where his phone got dropped.

"Ok. I'll go call Talia back first. She wanted to talk with you." Jason said and pressed a couple buttons then held it up to his ear.

"Taaaaaalllllll~~~iiiiiiaaaa. It's me. Why did you want to talk to the Replacement? He's here with me right now." Jason spoke into the phone as it continued to dial but he didn't seem to take any acknowledgement to this. " Did you tell him about Project G yet? I'm sure he's curious as hell about the origins of the guy he ran into. I would love to know also since I know very little of it."

Tim's eyes grew large at the mention of the _man _that cursed him to this fate but moved to him before Talia had finally picked up.

_"__Jason, listen to me carefully. I need _Gantai _to meet up with me at Gotham Harbor in fifteen minutes. Do _**_not _**_come with him. This is just between me and him." _she told into the phone and Jason frowned at this.

"What? Why just him? I deserve to know what is going on." Jason complained and Talia paused on the other side of the line.

_"…__Are you drunk. Jason?" _she questioned the anti-hero and he narrowed his eyes at this, anger lighting up like a match in his eyes.

"What the fuck are you implying Talia?" he snarled back in a different attitude and Tim's eyes narrowed to slits before snatching the phone away in break neck speed.

"Hello, Talia. Would you explain what is going?" He asked as Jason cursed at him but Tim completely ignored him.

_"__Meet me up at Gotham Harbor in fifteen minutes. I'll explain what exactly happened to you and how my father is involved in this." _Talia answered from the other line before hanging up and Tim dropped the phone as ran to his motorcycle and started it up.

"Kid! Where the fuck are you going?!" Jason asked and Tim glared at him before putting his helmet back on.

"I'm going to find out what exactly caused this to happen to me." He stated then fired up his engine, speeding away.

* * *

Cass shot up from her position once Batman blinked awake and looked around at the area was he was presented. It being the graveyard which his parents and Jason Todd had been buried in. He groaned wanted to rub his head at the aching pain but something held his hands back while Cass sat down next to him.

"I sorry." she apologized and he blinked at this then quickly remembered that she had been the one to attack him.

"Why, Cassandra?" he asked in a harsh tone as she avoided his gaze before standing back up.

"I can not explain. I am sworn to secrecy. I do not wish any harm on both you and the secrecy. I want only peace." She replied and then pulled out a piece of something wrapped in aluminum, placing it gently on the floor.

"I go and check now. This should keep _it _away if _it _comes." she stated then walked towards the elevator to the Bat Cave but it opened up before she had even called it. Jason came out, swearing and a cigarette in his mouth, walking right past Cass and moving to the door.

"Fucking brat! I swear to god that brat is going to make me regret ever helping him!" Jason snarled then stopped when he noticed Bruce awake, staring at him. He swore again and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Well, fuck." he said and turned to Cass, "Why didn't you knock him out again?"

"Did not know. He just awoke." she replied and he crossed his arms over his chest, tapping his foot in impatience before swearing again at this.

"Whatever. I need to go find out what Talia wants with _Gantai_. I have a bad feeling thats something will go down and I won't be there to at least stop it." Jason stated and released a steam of smoke from his nose, his cigarette bobbing up and down from the stress.

"Do you want help?" Cass asked and Jason raised an eyebrow at this.

"Not that I don't mind someone else to be dragged into this mess but what I want from you is to keep watch over these guys and make sure they don't get in my way. God knows what would happen, but if they do," Jason began at this and then pointed to aluminum foiled package near there feet, "Swore on that package that you won't tell them anything."

She stared at the package before nodding at this and turned back to him, promising, "I promise to not tell if they escape on that package." Jason nodded at this and continued to the exit as Batman struggled to break free of the bonds.

"Hopefully I'll be back with the brat." Jason said and left Batman to question what the hell had caused this and what was in the package that she swore on.

* * *

Tim casually walked to the edge of the Harbor wearing his Red Robin uniform, as he felt more relaxed in that than his _Gantai _outfit. He took a deep breath to relax himself even more and glanced around the area, trying to spot anything suspicious.

"So you did decided to come."

He turned to face Talia as she walked out from the shadows and held a stoic expression across her face, arms crossed over chest. He narrowed his eyes at her statement and sighed, asking, "What was your reason for me to be here, Talia?" Tim asked her and she looked away.

"The being in which you crossed unfortunate paths with is something that my father had created." She began and Tim gulped as she began to tell her tale, "That being was created as one of the twelve that had been scientifically engineered with the Lazarus Pits and other influential drugs and chemicals. This being had been the only successful one to live and breath like a normal human being but the amount of the Pits in its blood caused to be nearly impossible to harm the being. This also creates the blood to compose and emerge from the skin when feeling threatened, angered, depressed, and another emotions that mainly cause stress. This is a weapon that fights to increase battle morality rates by three hundred percent."

Tim walked towards her and watched as she then pulled out a piece of paper from the pocket of her coat. She started to unfold it before holding it out to him and said, "This is all that is known about Project G, or Ghouls, as you know." Tim couldn't help but snatch the papers right out of her hand and scan through the many pages of documentation.

_This…_he thought as his eyes grew large at the many calculations across the page, _is everything about Ghouls. This could even help me understand why Ghouls were even created. _

Tim then paused and looked to Talia again, asking, "Then how did the organs even get out of-?"

Then before he was able to finish his sentence the next thing he knew something dropped on top of him, with it being a car. He gasped out in pain by the weight and the papers flew everywhere as he clawed at the ground to push himself out from the car.

_"__How interesting! So the _Gantai _is actually one of the Batman's little birds. I would have thought otherwise but that explains so much." _

Tim's eyes grew wide at hearing the Scarecrow's raspy voice and tried to turn and face him but the Scarecrow instead walked from behind the shadows Talia had came from. His gas masked face sported a grin with it barely being able to hold for so long. He also held the body of Damian Wayne in one hand, tied up and asleep, and dropped the young boy in front of Tim.

_"__Now that I have what I want, you can take that brat of yours Talia." _Scarecrow said and placed his fingers, which had needles filled with Fear Toxin, under Tim's neck, turning his head to the side as he tried to find a point to inject the Toxin in.

_"__Where on his body am I able to penetrate him without my needles breaking?" _the Scarecrow asked Talia who quickly grabbed Damian from off the ground and held him tight to her body.

Tim's eyes grew wide as the needle approached his neck and waited for it to stab him but Scarecrow was hesitate to waste his Toxin if it didn't get in him.

"The only vulnerable spot when you don't have the weapon to harm him with is the lacrimal caruncle." She stated and Tim froze at this, not knowing where that was on the human body. The Scarecrow's grin grew larger at this and then grabbed the bottom of Tim's cowl, pulling it up. Tim's eye glanced to needle approaching his eye and his iris and pupil shook as it grew closer to him.

"Stop! Stop it!" He cried out as the needle came mere centimeters away from his eye, his breath hitched in his throat.

_"__Welcome to your worst nightmare, little bird." _The Scarecrow stated then plunged the tip of the needle to corner of his eye, hitting right above his tear duct. And with that Tim's screams of agony echoed the empty alleyways of Gotham and how even more unfortunate his life would change from this act of curiosity and innocence.


	8. Chapter VII: CiRcUlAr

**Reviews:**

**To Jessieklove: I hope this is soon enough for you! I hope you enjoy this chapter also! It took me not long because I got so excited writing this chapter! **

**Thanks for all the favorites and follows too! I appreciate them very much!**

* * *

**I do not own Batman or any other DC character.**

* * *

**WARNING: Further chapters will increase their graphic detail of certain situations so be wary that it may be unpleasant further ahead. If you can't handle it, then turn back now. I will indicate where it does begin and end though, so if you wish to continue to read the story you can with the symbol: ****

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter VII**

* * *

**CiRcUlAr**

_"__The wheel is come full circle" -William Shakespeare, King Lear_

* * *

_"__Stay away from me!" Steph cried out as Tim lunged to her, grabbing her arm with a tight force and pulled at it. She screamed in pain as the limb began to tear from off her body, blood oozing down from her shoulder and Tim couldn't help but grin at this. He pulled even harder than before, bones breaking off from her skeleton and muscles twisting away in a harsh SNAP! _

_"__STOP!" she screamed at him as tears rolled down her face and placed the arm above his mouth ad blood dripped onto his face. _

**_"_****_DELICIOUS." _**_Tim stated and Steph grasped her bleeding body, her breath slowing down before he looked back to her. Her eyes widen even more as he dropped the limb, becoming easily bored with it._

**_"_****_Let me feast upon your beauty." _**_he said and licked his lips as she screamed more in terror as he teared her apart alive. Ripping and pulling at her flesh as her blood poured out around him and coated his body with it. _

_He laughed madly and-_

gasped for breath as he blinked awake from the Fear Toxin, looking around at where he was. Sweat trickled down his body and he bore nothing but the bottom of his uniform, as if it had been cut off from his body and his feet touched the cold solid ground. He pulled at his arms but the sound of chains clanged against the chair he forced into. He looked to his feet and saw that the chair was metal also from being bolted down to the ground.

The place though looked like a horror story torture chamber from the blood coated walls, many different types of pliers spread on a table, needles of different size and form, a bowsaw, screwdriver, dead blow hammer, a bucket, and more to his surprise. The room also held a high ceiling with the lights above him barely flickering awake and the floor pattern being interlocked black and white tiles.

_"__Oh, you are finally awake, little bird?" _Scarecrow said and walked out from one shadowed area of the room along with Bane trailing behind him. Tim narrowed his eyes at this and again tried to pull at the chains but that was proven useless.

"What the hell do you want from me, Crane?" Tim snarled at the villain and they both stood in front him, observing him.

_"__What I want is to bring Gotham to its knees and you are going to help me with that." _Scarecrow stated and Tim watched as Scarecrow then picked up a plier before moving it to him, a small grin on his face knowing that he was trying to hurt him again but he wouldn't be able to.

_"__If you think I can't hurt you because you believe yourself immortal then you are wrong. As Talia stated, the lacrimal caruncle is the only place to injure you. Until I inject with something that will make you as human as possibly can." _ Scarecrow stated and Tim blinked at this, unsure if this was true.

**"****I don't think the little bird believes you, Scarecrow." **Bane said and Tim continued to ignore them, playing it off as they were trying to just get him nervous. Then Scarecrow pulls at his eyelid, creating an easier path to get to the lacrimal caruncle, and Tim felt his other eye widen at the sight of the needle just centimeters away from his eye again.

_"__Well then, I guess I have to show you that I speak of the full truth." _Scarecrow said and without another thought he shoved the point of the needle into the muscle. Tim screamed at this and couldn't help but watch as Scarecrow's grin grew larger at the sight of Tim's pain. Then Scarecrow pushed the liquid through the needle into Tim's system and he struggled to be released but it proved invalid. **

_"__Do you know what I am putting into your system right now, little bird?" _Scarecrow suggested and Tim wanted to shout no but the pain raking his system made him unable to, _"This is a liquid form of what can cause harm to you. Do you remember the weapon that Talia had mentioned to Red Hood? This is it. This will make your body be able to reduce make to human penetration and injury. It lasts for just seven hours though and I have a limited supply of fifteen shots from Talia. She was quite welling to give me anything just for that brat. This she made me promise that I would not capture him anymore. So in her eyes, you are just a merchandise. Much like how the rest of the Bat Family views you too. Am I wrong?" _

Tim felt the urge to vomit as the needle began to pull away, forcing Tim to close his eye at this attack to dwell the swelling. He panted for breath as Scarecrow's words rang through his head and began to think that they won't come for him.

_"__I'll be here for ya kid. Trust me on that." _

He then grinned and looked back up to the Scarecrow who frowned at his expression.

"No…I've got someone…" He stated and Scarecrow then grabbed the bowsaw, balancing it delicately in his hand.

_"__You may think that for now…but that can be changed quickly when you're dealing with me." _Scarecrow said and then leaned down to Tim's feet, which Tim continued to grin as he waited for him to do this.

_"__Now, little bird, are you ready for your psychology lesson today? As a way to help keep a patient focused and awake during torture is using a simple math equation to keep them fully aware. We'll begin with this: what is a thousand minus seven?" _Scarecrow questioned him and then brought the saw down onto the connection between the toe bones and metatarsals bone. Tim couldn't believe that he felt pain as blood rushed from his wound and pain rushed into way into his head. The Scarecrow broke through skin and slowly sawed its way through his foot, coating the floor in his blood.

_"__I'll ask again." _Scarecrow said and stopped to look directly into Tim's eyes, _"What is a thousand minus seven?" _

"Nine-Hundred…Ninety-Three." Tim groaned out as Scarecrow nodded at this, his grin plastered back on his face.

_"__Good. Now what is that minus seven?" _Scarecrow asked and Tim watched as the villain began to saw at it slowly again, just to bring the agony even more to him.

"Nine Hundred…and Eighty-Six…!" Tim shouted and Scarecrow nodded at this.

_"__You're going to be the most interesting thing since Batman started fighting crime in Gotham. Now keeping counting down. After we're doing cutting off your toes while try somewhere else, perhaps the Choke Pear? I also heard from Talia that your healing ,if you were to get injured,` is quite quick so those toes of yours will easily be replaced." _Scarecrow stated and Tim panted for breath as his mind reeled at the thought of his body healing so that he could regrow his limbs.

_"__Continue." _Scarecrow then hissed at him and Tim spoke the next frame of numbers at this, feeling his nerves explode as his toes were becoming separated from his body.

"Nine Hundred…and Seventy-Nine…" he growled out and pulled his head back to look away at the horror happening before his own body.

**"****Now,now, little bird. Who said you could look away?" **Bane growled at him and forced his head back down to his feet. He couldn't help but now watch as blood leaked from his empty appendages, his eyes large at the sight. Scarecrow held the piece of useless flesh in his hand, blood dribbling down his hand. Tim shook at the sight of this and Scarecrow then stood up, moving the bow saw onto the table while his own foot into the bucket.

******The Scarecrow then began to pick random weapons, each balancing in his hand, and asked Tim,_"Where to move onto now?"_

* * *

Jason Todd stared at the body of Damian Wayne laying on his couch and looked back to the note, laying on the table. He couldn't help but stare at it again and pick it up to read:

**Dear Jason,**

**I received Damian back for you so my end of the bargain is up. I have already headed back and I will not respond to any questions or requests until I deem so. Damian is healed to as much as I could possible do so he can be returned to his father now. **

**I do not know where Timothy has gone and do not except me to know. Although I wish you best of luck at finding the boy. **

**Talia**

He grind his teeth together and gripped the note tight in his hand, crumbling it away in his trash can. He then pulled one of guns out then shot at the wall, the sound echoing across the room. Screams were heard from the other side of the wall but he bluntly ignored them and swore loudly, tossing his table across the room in a fit of rage.

"That bitch!" he swore and panted for breath after his short temper tantrum. He then pulled out his cell phone and began dialing a phone number he hasn't called in a long time.

Cassandra stared at the unconscious bodies of her family members before turning her head to the sound of the telephone ringing. She stood up and picked it up, asking, "Who this?"

_"__Oh it's you." _Jason answered from the other side and sighed at this fact, _"Good. It's me Jason. I'm going to have to ask you to wake Dick Bird up. I need to talk with him." _

"Why?" Cass asked the anti-hero who then paused at this.

_"__Tim has been captured and I don't know where the hell he is or who even took him. I need to get some information so I can go find him." _Jason replied and Cass's eyes grew wide at this fact while turning to her unconscious step-brother's body.

"Why Dick?" she questioned and walked to him, phone in hand.

_"__Because he knows that I have Damian. I just got the brat back from Talia. It's her damn fault that Tim got dragged into this. My bet is that someone took the kid without any of us looking and she made a deal to trade Tim for Damian. I should've listened to Tim. That bitch deceived me and now she knows I would go hunt her down for this." J_ason stated and took a deep breath to calm himself down, _"I'm going to head back over there in a few seconds with the brat. So if you could them all up that would nice. Then I'll figure something out on how to get the kid back."_

* * *

_"__Mommy?" Tim asked and his mother turned to him, a smile gracing her features. Her eyes wrinkling slightly at the sight of him. Her bright blue eyes held honestly and happiness in them while her brown hair fell in curls around her neck. She wore an apron and decided on casual clothes for the day. _

_"__Yes, Timmy?" she asked him back and he looked to the cookie dough she held in her hand. _

_"__I was wondering if Daddy is planning on coming back soon. He said he would make the cookies with us." Tim said and his mother's expression turned to sorrow but flashed quickly back to a smile. _

_"__He's just running late, Timmy. Don't worry about it. He'll come soon enough." She said and then a figure dropped over her shoulder, needle hands pressing tightly to her shoulder. A gas mask shadowed over her and she did nothing at this but stood frozen at this, while Tim's eyes grew large at the face of Scarecrow. He trembled at the sight of the villain and opened his mouth to say something but the needles edged closer to the neck of his mother. _

**_"_****_Ah, ah, ah. Now, you don't want to harm your precious mother, would you?" _**_Scarecrow asked him and Tim slowly shook his head yes at this, knowing he sealed the deal to his own fate. _

**_"_****_Good…but I never promised that I would be the one to harm your mother, now did I?" _**_Scarecrow stated and with this Tim took notice of the cup of water she now held in her hands, replacing what was once the cookie dough. His eyes couldn't help but grow at the sight of the same drink that had _**_killed _**_his mother and wanted to cry out to stop her from taking a sip but his voice was lost to his fear. She raised the glass to her lips and that's when the water was drained from the cup, moving down her throat. _

_When she had finally finished the drink, that was when he was finally able to scream at this. Her expression quickly changed from happiness to confusion then finally horror. She reached her hands to her neck and opened her mouth to say something but when she did, she had spat out blood. Her blood had reached his face and she began to collapse at this, falling to the ground from the poison. He reached out to her but he was already to late once she began drinking the poison. She landed with a thud and he dropped to his knees, shaking at the sight of his now dead mother. _

_"__Mo…ther?" Tim whimpered out at the sight of his mother dead again._

**_"_****_What a shame. I guess you couldn't save like how Batman was unable to save her. Just like how you were unable to save your father too." _**_Scarecrow stated from behind him then Tim looked behind him to see his father holding a gun close to his face to protect himself. Tears drilled down his face and horror etched on face as the sound of footsteps drew closer to him. He shook at this and Jack turned to Tim with a smile on his face, saying, "No matter what happens…I'll always love you, Ti-" _

_Then blood yet again splattered across Tim's face and body as a boomerang sank into his father's face. It has easily cut through his skin and pierced through his skull into his brain. He gasped and Tim shook at this. _

_"__Fa…ther…?" he whimpered again and moved his hands to the blood. _

**_"_****_My, oh my. Are you now broken, little bird? I would think it takes more than the thought of how your parents died. If you are done though, I will have to toss you in the trash. You are no longer useful to me anymore." _**_Scarecrow stated but Tim shot around to face him, his left eye changed. _

**_"_****_How dare you!" _**_he snarled out and Scarecrow watched as Tim ran to him, ready to rip him apart limb by limb. Yet, Scarecrow easily moved away from the attack and Tim slide to a stop, panting for breath. _

**_"_****_It is not my fault that your parents were killed, little bird." _**_Scarecrow said and looked down to illusion of his dead parents, then back up to Tim, _**_"It is your fault." _**

_Tim paused at the thought of this but quickly shook his head at this, ignoring the Scarecrow's response. He raised his blood stained hands then the scene around him changed quickly to something instead. _

_He was now back to his actually age and around him were the bodies of his family and friends. Blood spilled out for random gapping wounds and horrified expressions plastered on their faces as he blinked at this, looking down to his own hands. They were coated in blood and he licked his lips, feeling the bitter taste of blood on his tongue. He narrowed his eyes at this, sorrow filling his head at this and felt tears rise up to the surface. _

**_"_****_Damn you, Crane!" _**_Tim shouted and attempted to ignore his senses since they were being lied to by the Fear Gas. He put his hands over his face, closing his eyes shut and tried to ignore the scent of blood on his hands. _

**_"_****_It is not I in control of this situation. This is all from your own imagination, little bird." _**_'Scarecrow' said in his head and Tim scowled at this, grinding his teeth together, _**_"Do you want to continue in your dream or return to reality that is much crueler than before?" _**

_Tim scowled at this before yelling out, _**_"I would rather be in physical torture than mental torture! I can at least handle the pain of my toes being ripped off from my body!" _**

**_"_****_What an interesting take. Fine, you want physical torture. Don't complain to me later that wished to have stayed in a nightmare." _**_Scarecrow said and Tim panted for breath before closing his eyes, hoping the next time he opened them he would back in his horrific reality._

* * *

Jason waited for the door to open at Wayne Manor and tapped his foot in impatience, a cigarette now lingering between his lips. He bite down harshly on it and the taste of tobacco flooded his mouth. Slowly the door opened and he looked down to see Cass now out of his uniform and instead wore a low cut red tank top and black sweat pants. Although in her hand was a kitchen knife, pointed to his throat and he stood still at this. She kept a serious face and Jason waited for her to remove the knife.

"Oh…it is you." she stated and removed the knife from his throat, holding it now to her side.

"Yeah, it's me. Who else would think to come back to this hellhole?" Jason stated and Cass frowned at this, letting him inside and closing the door behind him.

"I wary." she explained and he nodded at this, the both of them walking to where the Bat family remanded tied up. Batman was knocked yet again unconscious but Dick was awoken but Jason's request. The first Robin scowled at the sight of Jason and snarled out, "The hell are you doing here, Jason?"

Jason took his cigarette out and tapped on the end of it, ash escaping from the butt of it. Some escaped from lips and nose as he responding to Dick, "I need some questioned answered. You should know the answer to them."

Dick smirked at this and asked, "What makes you think that I'll answer your questions?"

This time Jason smirked at this and bent down to Dick's eye level, "I have the Bat Brat that you care so much about. If you answer my questions, I'll give him back to you with no bruises or cuts to even worry about. He's also all healed from the wound that the _Gantai_ gave him."

Dick stared at him in disbelief and then grind his teeth together.

"What are your questions?" Dick hissed at him and Jason smiled at this as Cass also sat by the two.

"Who would you think Talia would agree to bargain with for a trade?" Jason questioned him and Dick frowned at this question.

"Why would you think I know that question? Bruce knows Talia more than me." Dick answered back and Jason frowned at this.

"Yeah, I know that…but I know you don't view Talia the same way like Bruce." Jason stated and Dick narrowed his eyes at this before looking away.

"She knows to not fool around with the Joker. So I'm betting someone around his level but not viewed as high as him. Someone who would prefer to work in the shadows and do dealings." Dick answered and Jason blinked at this before his eyes grew wide at the thought of the Ring fight.

"Bane." He stated and the two Bats stared at him in confusion then grinder his teeth together in annoyance, "She would go for him. He has multiple connections to other dealers. He would be the perfect one to make a deal with."

Cass narrowed her eyes at this and agreed with his opinion by nodding at it. She said, "I agree. He makes perfect exchange." Jason smirked at her statement then stood up and walked to where the Bat Cave's Entrance was located.

"Excellent, now if you don't mind me, I'm going to go visit a few friends of mine to get some information on where Bane has been around in Gotham." He said but something stopped him by grabbing his sleeve. He glanced back to see Cass clutching it tight in her hand and a small fire in her brown eyes, caused Jason to stare down at her.

"I go with you." She announced and he then frowned at this, his cigarette hanging loosely in his mouth.

"Why should I let you?" he asked and she gripped his arm tighter.

"I _need _to. As an apology." she answered and he smiled at her response, replying, "Good. Then let's get this show on the road."

"What the hell do you plan on doing? Who are you taking about being exchanged for Damian?" Dick questioned him and Jason sighed at this, smoke escaping his lips.

"It's better that you don't get involved, Dick. This is something that only me and the girl can handle. If you dig to deep, you'll regret learning what you found out." Jason stated and Dick narrowed his eyes at this, trying to decipher it before they widen at Talia's message before he mentioned her name.

"Did the _Gantai_ get captured, Jason?" Dick asked him and Jason ignored his gaze by moving to the Bat Cave, dragging Cass with him. Dick scowled at this and yelled at the two, "I'm correct, aren't I?! Why are you doing so much for a monster, Jason?! It's not like you personally know _it_!"

That's when Jason snapped around to Dick when the elevator had been called and they were already in it. His eyes held anger burning brightly in them meanwhile Cass's held sorrow in them. Dick blinked at this and before he could beg for answers, the doors to the elevator shut and the two Bats descended down to figure out where Tim had been taken.

* * *

_"__Now, how are we feeling so far today?" _Scarecrow asked Tim who panted for breath, his mind reeling at trying to recalling where he was on counting numbers.

_Nine Hundred and Two…Eight Hundred and Ninety and Five…_He thought in his mind and sweat dribbled down his back, anguish pulling him back to reality. Scarecrow then picked something out of the bloody bucket that his toes had been put in. The Scarecrow dug around in the bucket before pulling out some fingers that he had cut off earlier when he was in his hallucinated dream.

_"__You must be getting hungry soon." _Scarecrow said and Tim glanced at him, watching him then place it down on the medical table. He watched as the Doctor walked over to him and he slapped Tim across the face, causing him to break out of his number counting. He spat out a tooth and Scarecrow smiled at this.

_"__Good. Now, how about you open wide and at your dinner?" _Scarecrow suggested and Tim was planning on going to ask what he meant but then the Scarecrow grabbed Tim's mouth. He scowled and struggled to keep his jaw shut but being put through so much torture broke his physical will.

_"__Come on, kid. Eat your meal!" _Scarecrow shouted at him and Tim bit his teeth down as hard as he could to prevent Scarecrow from committing autocannibalism on himself, _"Stop being a fucking brat, little bird! Eat!" _

Tim glared at the man before opening his mouth wide and launched it towards Scarecrow's arm. Scarecrow swore loudly as Tim bit harshly down on his flesh and Tim teared the flesh away from Scarecrow's arm, leaving blood to drip from the wound. The Scarecrow glared at him as Tim chewed onto the piece of flesh, pleasure of eating causing him to salivate from it. He waited for Scarecrow to make a move against him but he continued to watch him chew the meat, as if he wanted Tim to swallow the piece.

_Why? _Tim thought and slowed his chewing again, _Why is he allowing me to eat his flesh?! WHY?! Does he expect me to spit it out? Does he expect me to enjoy it?! What does he think I'm going to do?!_

Tim decided to ignore his tastebuds and spat the Doctor's flesh out by his own missing feet. The taste of blood remained on his lips and heaved for breath.****** The Doctor, then without a moment of hesitation, shoved his own detached fingers into his mouth and horror spread across Tim's face at the taste of his own body.

_"__Eat your meat!" _Scarecrow hissed at him and forced Tim to chew at his fingers, the taste of his own blood neither appetizing nor unappetizing. He couldn't help but not mind the taste of his own flesh but it was something even more inhumane than eating other people's flesh.

_No! I don't want to be more of a monster! I'm already gone from humanity! I don't need to go further! _He thought but still continued to chew, the Scarecrow pleased at this development.

_"__Good, little bird." _Scarecrow said and then Tim bite down on the bone of his own finger, a crack echoing in his mouth. Tim felt the urge to cry at the fact he was committing to such horrors and the Scarecrow forcing his mouth close, swallowing the fingers at this.

******_"Now, how was it?" _Scarecrow asked and Tim panted for breath at this, not wanting to answer his question knowing what he would say.

**_YES! _**


	9. Chapter VIII: BiRdCaGe

**Reviews: **

**To Jessieklove: Indeed it is. This story will get more gruesome in the next chapter though. This one I would consider lighter on the details but still will be gruesome. I hope you enjoy the chapter nevertheless. Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it! **

**Thanks for all the favorites and followers! I appreciate it! Enjoy the chapter!**

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**I do not own Batman or any other DC character.**

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter VIII**

* * *

**BiRdCaGe**

_"__To be human is to keep rattling the bars of the cage of existence, hollering, 'What's it for?'" -Robert Fulghum_

* * *

It had already been a day being captured as Tim observed Scarecrow picking up a can of gasoline and headed to the late teen. Tim's head hung low to the ground and he whispered under his breath, "Seven Hundred and Forty-Eight…Seven Hundred and Forty-One…"

Scarecrow couldn't help but smile from the fact that Tim was slowly breaking down and becoming nothing but a broken man in the body of a monster. Scarecrow then began to pour the gasoline onto the teen's shoulders. The diesel drenched his body and he breathed out a sigh, watching as it continued pouring down his body.

_It's already been a single day at most…_Tim thought and watched the Doctor pulled away from him. He glanced back up to see Scarecrow now with a match in hand, already lit and ready to place on his skin.

_"__Are you ready for another test, little bird?" _Scarecrow asked him and Tim couldn't help but feel himself smile at this. His eye mutated eye held glee in it while the other held horror within as he stared into Scarecrow's glowing eyes.

**"****I've been prepared for a while, Crane!" **he exclaimed and laughed at this but on the inside he struggled to keep his sanity and will in control.

_I don't…I don't want to be here anymore! Someone save me! _Tim screamed in his own thoughts and didn't even start to scream as the fire began to pick up on his skin. The diesel on his skin flared up and started to roast him alive, wrapping and burning his skin off. His blood began to boil from the heat but it wouldn't dare leak from his body as his skin melted.

He continued to laugh and watched as Scarecrow took notes of his torture, hoping he would eventually stop this madness.

_IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED CRANE?! _Tim thought and tugged at the chains on his wrists, pulling at them, _YOU HAVE CLEARLY BROKEN ME MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY! WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO TO ME?!_

**"****He may have broken you but he wants to reform you, kid." **

Tim stopped laughing at the sound of _him _and _he _stood next to Crane with a frown on his face. He couldn't help but stare at the illusion of his base torment who casually walked around Crane, who now stood frozen. Tim growled realizing he had unintentionally froze himself to a secluded part of his psyche, where he wasn't in reality.

"Why the hell are you here? Where exactly am I?" he asked _him _who couldn't help but smile at this.

**"****Why you are certainty suffering from psychosis, kid. Your mind could't held the physical torture anymore so it separated you into this fake reality." **_He _said and Tim glanced down to his body that no longer was on fire but was still chained to the chair. HE looked back up to _him _and asked, "Then why the hell am I still glued to this chair?"

_He _shrugged and frowned as he walked cautiously towards Tim.

**"****You are in control of this. Why would you think I know the answer to it?" **_He _stated and Tim scowled at this.

"Whatever." Tim said and looked down to his toes-the _fifth _ones- regenerated. The flesh was colored skin from the skin being repeatedly pulled apart and sawed through. His toenails were beginning to change color from repeatedly reforming into black.

"You're here for another reason though." Tim said and _he _smiled at this.

**"****Indeed. Now you do remember our last full conversation, right?" **_He _questioned Tim who nodded at this, remember how _he _stated _he _was an illusion Tim created to keep himself from blaming himself as a monster, **"Good. So you finally accept the truth?" **

Tim snarled at those words and snapped back, "No way in hell. I may be a monster but it is not my choice! I was forced upon this role!"

**"****What about me then? Was I not forced into the role of a monster?" **_He _questioned Tim who blinked at his words, **"You read some of those files before you were dragged here. I was forced into experimentation. I was the original monster. I hold no recollection of my pass life before becoming a Ghoul. Ra's al Ghul did this to me just to test the limits of humanity and change the world."**

An angry look crossed across his face and _he _suddenly gripped Tim by the shoulders, forcing Tim to stare directly into _his _eyes.

**"****Do you know the agony I went through in the experiment? I was ****_awake _****the entire time. I was kept from falling asleep or be put on drugs because the effects it could produce if they failed again. I felt them mess around my body, my biological DNA, as I remained silent. What you are going through is nothing yet, kid. Just wait until Crane gets further in his torture." **_He _said and the tiled floor around Tim began to turn in a wheel, moving him in a circle.

Then the smell of burning flesh invaded his nose and he snapped back to reality.

He smelled of beef in a frying pan, which disgusted him even more than possible, but still continued to laugh as if he found himself being on fire funny.

_"__Still even with the injection, your body is trying to heal itself will still on fire…how interesting. You must be at your limit or at least very close to it. The physical intensity will have to be pushed even further to begin the reprogramming of your will." _Scarecrow said and Tim felt the flames begin to lick at his hair. The smell of sulfur filled his nose as the flames were moving fast up his hair, smoke surrounding him slowly.

_This has to be the closest I've ever been to hell…being set on fire…just like Jason…_Tim thought and his head rolled down to see the flames remain on his skin but it was slowly healing itself up with the skin growing back but kept on fading when more flames appeared.

Then something splashed over him and he blinked at this, seeing his skin smolder. The smell of his own fest and hair remained on his nose but dulled down. Water dripped down his body and his uniform completely ruined as barely anything was covering his skin from this method.

**His uniform was taken away.**

This thought caused him to scream in fury and tried as hard as he could to attack Crane from the chair.

**"****YoU tOoK iT aWaY fRoM mE yOu MoThErFuCkEr!" **Tim screamed in a hysteric voice and from his exposed back, his blood began to boil and tried to escape his skin and form the tentacles but the injection prevented this for another two hours. He snarled and hissed at Scarecrow who remained motionless but just observed his state, writing it down in his notes.

**"****ThAt WaS mInE! It BeLoNgEd To Me!" **he continued to scream at Crane and shrieked again, the sound so loud that it should damage hearing like a power drill drilling into a piece of metal.

Yet Crane did nothing but take notes to Tim's anger and annoyance.

**"****YoU dEsErVe DeAtH, cRaNe!" **Tim shouted again and pulled at the chains, his skin getting irritated from the strength he was going at.

This last statement caused Scarecrow to stop writing and look up to Tim with glee on his face.

_"__Oh? I 'deserve death'?" _Scarecrow restated and Tim stopped at this, shock and horror crossing over his features.

_Did…did I just say I wanted to…kill Crane? _Tim thought and his body froze still, now realizing Crane was actually forcing him to change into a monster without him realizing it.

**"****See, I told you. This was only the beginning."**

* * *

Jason Todd and Cassandra Cain observed multiple security cameras as they continued to make an attempt at finding the missing teen. A cigarette was hung over his lips and smoke began to smoke from his lips and nostrils, anger still radiating on his face and bags hung under his eyes.

"Fuck!" he shouted to no one and Cass raised an eyebrow at this.

"Do you need break?" she asked and he shot up from his chair, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I think we need to let one of them go…" he began and cautiously walked around the Cave, observing everything he passed by, "Gotham will have no protection if we hold onto them for any longer. We need to keep the people safe as a priority. We can't just focus on the brat without forget the people of Gotham…but who the hell should we get? I'm surprised Batwoman hasn't come down here ready to bust some walls down or even Oracle."

"Oracle called earlier. I told her everything is fine. I said family was exhausted after getting Damian back." Cass said and Jason froze at this before scowling.

"She'll probably still get curious and worry about them…she would be doing something soon. What the hell should we do about this? Who the hell can we trust for this?" he hissed and ran a hand through his hear. His other hand shook from his addiction to the cigarette between his fingertips and his feet tapped in impatience.

"…I don't think Steph…she cares too much for Tim…it may crush her…" Cass said and Jason nodded at this, knowing the girl had already had enough of damage to deal with could crush her.

"Dick…he wouldn't believe us. He can't with what Tim did to the Bat Brat." Jason said and rolled his shoulders, "Definitely not Batman, he would ask to many fucking questions that I could possibly answer. Fuck, there isn't any options left!"

"Are you so sure about that, Todd?"

The two froze at the voice and looked to see Damian Wayne, with a familiar scowl on his face and a bandage wrapped around the arm that Tim had bit at.

"Damian…" Cass let out in a whisper and he looked to her, eyes narrowed before nodding.

"Of course. Who else would I be?" he stated and then tears began to drip down from her eyes, shocking the two males at this.

"You ok." she said with happiness in her voice that had the youngest in the Bat family blush a tiny bit.

"Of course. What Drake did is nothing to cry over. I was just surprised. Luckily it did no damage to my muscles or nerve or else I would have cut off Drake's hand in return." Damian stated to reassure her and she nodded before quickly wiping her tears away.

"Good. Good." she said and looked to Jason before saying, "Are you going with him?"

He raised an eyebrow at this and asked, "Me? As what? I can't go prancing around with my guns blazing, sweetheart."

"As Batman or Nightwing or Red Robin." she stated and Jason frowned at this but then shrugged.

"Not like I haven't played as them before." he said and Damian's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"So, I'll be with Todd? Glorious." Damian muttered and Cass glared at the preteen.

"Would you search instead?" she asked him and he glanced up at her before pouting.

"Maybe I would, Cain. I can at least understand English better than you plus I would rather not injury myself after getting healed back up again." Damian said and Cass frowned at this then nodded.

"Fine." she stated and jumped off from her chair, pointing to Jason, "Suit up as Nightwing. I be Batgirl."

He stared at her fierce statement then shrugged, sticking the cigarette back in his mouth.

"Fine, I'll be Dickiebird. Brat, you tell us if you find anything when we're out." He said then without another say, Cass started removing her clothes in front of them. The two males started shouting in horror as she then stopped, not understanding why they were so alarmed.

"What is wrong?" she asked and Jason rubbed his brows in both annoyance and confusion.

"Why are you stripping in front of us?! Can you not get changed in the back?!" he shouted and Cass stared at them in confusion.

"I wear bra and underwear." she simply stated and then Jason tossed his jacket over her, covering her up somewhat.

"It doesn't matter. Get changed in the room! I can wait." Jason told her and she looked to the jacket then nodded, heading to the changing room in the Cave.

"She's an odd one." Damian whispered and Jason glared at the younger boy.

"I never really got any information on her. How much do you know of her like her upbringing and parents?" Jason questioned him and Damian stalked over to the computer.

"Why don't you ask her if you're so curious, Todd? I will not hand over information so casually." Damian stated and Jason nodded before sticking his cigarette in his mouth, nodding it up and down.

"Fine…we'll see you once we're done patrolling. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Jason said and Damian began to type not the computer.

"Of course I will." Damian hissed at his older adoptive brother who then breathed out a patch of smoke.

Jason said, "Good. And Brat, Tim didn't mean to-"

Damian stopped him and said, "I know he didn't Todd, just get going."

* * *

Tim felt his own blood dribble down his throat as he was again forced to eat his own flesh as a meal. This time Scarecrow gave him some of his toes instead of fingers, hoping that he would eat them faster. The taste didn't delight him as previous, which made him glad, but still wasn't disgusting. He gnawed at the small bones in his mouth, crushing it and exploding out in a burst of red from the inside of his mouth.

_"__Good, is it not?" _Scarecrow asked him and Tim wanted to growl at the Doctor in annoyance but he was forced to chew.

**It Is NoT tO bAd…**

He wanted to hurl on the ground at the sound of his own mutated voice.

**It Is AcTuAlLy ReAlLy GoOd…**

He felt his mind nullify at the the voice and began to slowly accept the fact that his _own _flesh was quite **dElIcIoUs**.

_NO! IT IS NOT DELICIOUS TO EAT! EATING FLESH IS BAD! EATING MY OWN FLESH IS INHUMAN! _Tim thought in horror and pulled at the chains on his wrists, wanting to free himself from the horror.

**"****Are you sure about that or is that your past 'humanity' speaking to you? I thought you said you accepted the fact that you are a monster just moments ago." **

Tim looked to see _him _wander around Tim with a grim smile on his face and watched as Tim finally finished eating, swallowing his own flesh easily down his throat. Blood coated his face and some dripped down from his lips, staining his body.

**"****Not going to say anything? Well, you are back to your psychotic break. It is time for anther lesson in torture." **_He _said and Tim moved again to free himself but the chains proved resistance even in his own mental breakdown.

**"****Now, the idea for this form of torture is break your identity as a human. To eliminate any thought that you were a human even before gaining my organs and forced to eat flesh. This is Scarecrow's next goal after breaking your will." **_He _said and then disappeared in Tim's vision, leaving Tim to try and look where _He _had went.

**"****Forcing you to eat your own flesh, making you taste your own blood and bones. Do you feel yourself changing both on the inside and out?" **_He _whispered behind Tim who managed to get a glimpse of the blood dripping down _his _face.

**"****Will you choke on your own blood…or your enemies?" **

The blood then clashed onto the floor and the tiled floor transformed into a massive river of blood, leading directly to Tim. Tim tugged to lift his feet up from becoming blood stained but by the time he attempted to keep himself clean it already touched his regrown toes. The blood began to rise and moved up.

**"****Can you even keep yourself clean from the blood? You've already killed someone, Timothy." **_He _said but Tim could not see from where _his _voice was coming from. Shock overused Tim's features at the thought of Devin Morris's dead body-

_He had swung the tentacles at him and pierced through Devin's body, blood coated the ground and walls, especially on Tim. He couldn't help but kept the grin plastered on his face as he swung the Venom influenced teen around, not knowing that he would be pierced by a pole and would later die of blood loss_

-and then a hand grabbed his leg from the pool of blood. He looked down and saw Devin's face bubbled below the surface, staring at him in anger.

**"****You killed me…" **Devin grumbled from below the blood and Tim felt the blood drain from his face, watching as Devin slowly pulled himself up from the blood.

**"****You've killed all of us…" **

Then his parents began to climb out from the blood, drenched in it and Tim shook at the sight of them. They smiled at him, flashing blood stained teeth and his parents wrapped their arms around him while Devin chuckled at this.

**"****How could you, Timmy? I thought you loved me?" **His parents said and Tim opened his mouth to say that he does but the fear riding in his veins prevented him from doing so. Their blood began to drip onto Tim and he felt himself hyperventilating from this, his mind reeling from the fact.

**"****Why did you kill us? Isn't it against your belief to kill? How could you toss away your morals so easily?" **They asked him and he struggled to break the chains to run from the truth being told to him.

_THEY ARE LYING. THEY ARE LYING. THEY ARE LYING! DON'T BELIEVE THEIR LIES! DON'T BELIVE IT! _Tim thought as he tried to calm himself down but he was useless as they continued to repeat what they spoke as the truth, _THEY ARE NOTHING BUT ILLUSIONS! I'M HALLUCINATING THIS! _

"I didn't kill you!" he snarled at them to try and ignore their presence as they clawed into his skin, bleeding all over him, "I would never do that! It is against my morals to kill! I couldn't do it!"

**"****But you killed me, Tim…you killed me in all your rage and fury. You are a murderer. At least accept that fact instead of ignoring my death, believing you are still the hero in your story!" **Devin snarled at Tim and Tim scowled at this. He closed his eyes as he tried to ignore the truth being told to him.

**"****Let go of that moral, Timothy." **_He _said and Tim continued to seal his eyes shut, **"You must come to an understanding that you are officially a killer, a murderer. Accepting the fact will help coop with the torture. You can view the torture as punishment for killing someone." **

Tim slowly drew in a deep breath as he thought about it, _He could be right…I did actually break my moral code. I should accept the fact that I have killed someone even though I did not mean it. I committed a sin and I should accept my retribution. _

**"****Exactly, Timothy. You committed a sin, so therefore are you a hero, anymore? Or you now a villain?" **_He _questioned Tim who now breathed softer and slowly opened his eyes. A black sclera and red iris shined bright from his left eye and stared at the bloody form of _Him _at the time of _his _death. _His _normally unstained cloak that he covered in was profoundly bleeding from his head and dripping through _his _violet hair onto on his face. His limbs twisted in awkward angles from being crushed by the steel bars as he faced Tim with a smirk across his face.

**"****When has there ever been a hero?" **Tim said in a different voice and _He _was grinning from ear to ear now, **"There is only villains versus villains. Heroes are a hallucination people give about themselves to help suppress the fact that they are in fact villains in another's eye. No one has ever been a hero. Not me, not Bruce, not Dick, not Jason, not Damian, not Barbara, not Steph, not Cass, not Katherine. No one is a hero. We are villains." **

_He _slowly walked to Tim with _his_ limbs twisting and turning as _he_ attempted to move to Tim but _he _wasn't making any progress. Tim then said, **"I'll be back…then we'll be at our ends wits. But this session of ours is at end, I feel the physical pain seeping into this mental break. It will be an meeting I can't wait." **

**"****Good, good. I can't wait for our next meeting, kid." **_He _said and Tim smiled at this, closing his eyes yet again.

This time when he opened them up, he saw the familiar needle approaching his eye and didn't even wince or scream when it pushed through to the lacrimal caruncle. He just stared directly into the glowing eyes of the Scarecrow and waited for him to push the liquid into his veins, reverting his body to a human-like one.

_"__Finally stopped complaining? Excellent. Now, time to begin the change of will. The physical torture will continue but with more interests in this will bending." _Scarecrow said and pushing the liquid now through Tim's veins.

Tim smiled at this then said, "Let the fun begin."

* * *

Jason was tempted to pull at the Nightwing suit from being so tight on his body but the look Cass gave him from behind her mask stopped him. He scowled and gripped the escrima sticks in his hand tight as he saw a couple of muggers move to a young girl. Before he had any say, Cass jumped down and landed on one of the mugger's body. A sound of pain escaped his mouth and the other mugger turned to face her, ready to attack but Cass was much faster than he anticipated.

She had already knocked the mugger's gun away with kicking it out of his hand and knocked him off his feet. He groaned and she looked back up to Jason, seeing that he was staring at her fast takedown.

"Will you help?" she asked up to him and Jason scowled at this then jumped next to her, staring at the groaning bodies of the mugger's.

"You already took them down. Why should I?" he replied back with a question and she glared at him from under the mask.

"Thank you, Batgirl!" the girl the muggers were after and Cass blinked at this before a small blush appeared on her face.

"Not a problem." she said and Jason raised an eyebrow at this before placing the escrima sticks into their place on his back.

"Have you seen Red Robin by any chance, miss?" Jason asked in his most polite voice he could muster and the girl blinked at this.

"Well, the last time I saw him, it had been a day or two ago, he seemed to be heading in the direction of the Harbor." she stated and Jason narrowed his eyes at this, anger now boiling through his veins.

"The bitch brought him to the harbor." he hissed and already started heading in the direction of it but Cass was still behind with the girl. She stared at her before narrowing her eyes and said, "You with Talia?" she asked and the girl frowned at this before shrugging her shoulders.

"Why would it matter? I gave you information on your lost bird." she stated and Cass took once last glance at Jason as he continued running across the rooftops heading towards the Harbor.

"Why would she give information when she told Jason she wouldn't?" Cass questioned her and the girl then smirked at this, beginning to walk away from Cass.

"She has her reasons…maybe its because she knows the little bird will be forever changed because of what she had done." the girl said and Cass frowned at this.

"What did she do?" Cass asked but she was answered with silence and knew that the girl has already left with her answers.

* * *

It was pulling him apart, physically.

Pulling.

Pulling.

_Pulling._

The skin on his back was being pulled off.

His own _flesh _was being pulled off his body.

He remained silent besides the occasional listing of numbers that Scarecrow demanded for him to say.

The pain had already turned numb by the time Scarecrow stared on his third attempt to peel Tim's back.

_Pulling._

_Pulling. _

_Like pulling apart the piece of flesh off of Damian's arm. _

Tim snapped at that thought and reality sent him screaming at the pain he received.

His screams echoed the walls around them that only the two would hear. He swore at the pain and Scarecrow, attempting to be released from the chains.

_"__Screaming does you no good, little bird." _Scarecrow said to Tim who continued to do so until Scarecrow then slowly pulled at the skin, blood rushing down Tim's back like a river. Tim this time groaned in time instead and finally Scarecrow then brought out a pair of shears, cutting the piece of flesh off. He placed the piece in the bucket that contained other slices of his skin, toes, and fingers.

_"__Now, to keep that scream of yours silent, how about we get rid of that pesky voice?" _Scarecrow said and Tim knew that he wasn't fully broken yet but he would be soon enough.


	10. Chapter IX: MoNsTeR

**Thanks for all the favorites and follows! I appreciate it! This chapter leaves on a BIG cliff hanger, so I hope you guys enjoy and I appreciate reviews! I'll try to write the next chapter up quick, since there will only be two more left before it ends. Anyways, thanks again and enjoy! **

* * *

**I do not Batman or any other DC characters.**

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Chapter IX**

* * *

**MoNsTeR**

_"__I've created a monster." -Rip Taylor_

* * *

It was another day again from counting down.

Something had been pulled again from his body.

Tim blinked at this and attempted to open right eye but his eyelid closed over it. The eyelid itself was closed in on him but what he forgot from his multiple states of psychosis was that the Doctor had _pulled _out his right eyeball.

He had panicked when the Doctor had pulled out another torture device and moved it towards his eye. He had watched as the Doctor pulled back the skin around his eye to get the eyeball out of the eye socket.

He forced himself into a mental break down.

He couldn't help himself.

He was beginning to break down.

He was started to be reformed into the role of a monster.

He was beginning to be the monster in his own tale.

**BuT wAsN't I a MoNsTeR tO bEgIn WiTh? **he thought to himself and then the Doctor walked in front of him, staring at the remains of what once a hero.

_"__Have you fallen back into your state of psychosis? I know you've been doing that for a while, lost bird. I am betting that you trying to subdue your knowledge of your torture by taking a break from reality. It is interesting when you do go into that state. You're body becomes nothing but a piece of meat, dead on the inside." _Scarecrow said as he the sat down in front of him from a wooden stool he kept. He stared at the blank expression on Tim's face before Tim slowly looked up to the Doctor. His expression remained motionless until he pulled out a shit eating grin saying, **"But I have no fun when I'm with you anymore!" **

The Doctor froze at this and waited for Tim to continue. He sat up more and his hair almost fell in front of his eyes.

**"****Sure, we've had fun in the past with you stripping me of my flesh and pulling my body apart but it's gotten so boring to me. There is no more excitement with you. My own twisted mind is more fun to roam in!" **Tim stated and giggled at this as Scarecrow then stood up at this, moving towards his instruments on the table. He glanced around to them before looking towards Tim and grinned.

_"__Oh, you have no more fun with me? What a petty because now the fun will begin." _He said and then pulled out a stake, like one to stab a vampire in the heart. Tim watched him and the Scarecrow then plunged the stake into his left leg.

Pain roared in his head and he grinned wider at the sight of blood running down his leg. The stake had pushed through his leg and attacked muscles that were of importance, almost even hitting an artery. Blood began to cascade down his leg and he rolled his head around before chuckling at the sight of this.

**"****Oh what a delight! It's as if my own mind is putting on a performance to enjoy in reality!" **he cried out in a raving speak and the Scarecrow watched as Tim giggled at the pain, **"Pain has become nothing to me, Crane. You've run out of good ideas to perform! This small game we have going on isn't going to last for to long." **

Then before he could say anything else, Crane forced Tim's head back and his jaw opened wide.

_"__How about I break that jaw of yours then? That would be much more of a development than driving a stakes through your body." _Crane asked and Tim raised an eyebrow at this, now curious if he would actually do it. Then instead of doing what he said, he pulled away from Tim who stared at him in shock.

**"****What? You're not going to do it?" **Tim bugged him and Crane then gave a madden smile to him. He said absolutely nothing and pulled a chair in front of Tim before moving the bucket filled with his different appendages that Crane pulled off his body in front of the both of them. Tim raised an eyebrow at this before looking back to Crane.

**"****What exactly are trying to do, Crane? I don't see your point of this." **Tim stated and Crane continued to sit still, not moving a muscle. Crane just observed him as he did nothing but stare at the late teen so started to think of anything that the Doctor could do.

_What the hell is he thinking of doing? Never mind that, what the hell is he trying to prove with just sitting there and staring at me? _Tim thought and continued to wait for something to occur yet the Doctor did nothing for him.

The anticipation was driving him insane.

He struggled to move any parts of his body as the Scarecrow continued to observe him with gleaming eyes that did not move from its spot.

**"****Stop that…" **Tim hissed at the Doctor how continued to not move. It was killing him that nothing was happening to him since he experienced so much pain that he wanted something to occur. He pulled again at the chains as more blood rushed down from the current wound he had. He scowled and stared at the wound before the feeling of lightheadedness approached him. He groaned and closed his eyes, knowing that he was going into a psychosis state of mind.

* * *

Bruce, Dick, and Steph stared at the door of the Cave open to descend down and waited for Jason and Cass to walk back up in any minute. Bruce looked to Dick who continued to try and get out of the ties but failed.

"Dick, stop for a moment. You need to calm down in case they return and take the jump on them." Bruce said and Dick stopped, breathing heavily at this with annoyance written in his gaze.

"I know but with Damian still missing, I can't help myself." Dick replied back and his hair stuck to his head from sweating so hard.

"Fucking hell, I swear to god, my trust level has dropped to nothing! That bitch turned me so if she were to ever ask for another god damn favor, my answer is my middle finger!" the voice of Jason greeted them and both him and Cass stepped up from the Cave doors, still wearing the suits they went out in. Dick blinked at the sight of Jason wearing his suit and Cass wearing Steph's Batgirl uniform. Jason stopped talking once he saw them and smirked.

"Still haven't been able to get out of the ties, oh family of mine?" Jason asked and the Bat Family scowled at this.

"Why are you wearing my suit, Jason?" Dick hissed at his younger adoptive brother who frowned at the question then pointed to Cass.

"She suggested we go out to make sure nothing is wrong with Gotham. She told me to wear your uniform so we won't attract to much attention to ourselves." he replied and Cass walked towards the kitchen, ignoring any eyes as she went.

"Can ya fetch me a beer, Cass?" Jason asked and she nodded at this before continuing her way to the kitchen.

"Why do you care, Jason? What exactly are you and Cass hiding, Jason?" Bruce then asked and Jason sat down so he could talk on the same level as them.

"Well, a secret's called a secret for a reason, Bruce." Jason replied back and Bruce narrowed his eyes at this.

"Wait…what happened to Tim? He was in pain when Cass knocked me out. What did you do to him?" Steph questioned Jason with anger hinted in her voice as he then sighed, looking away from her gaze.

"Don't worry about it, girly. He's fine." Jason told her but she still remained with an angry expression.

"Then why isn't he with us or you?" she hissed back to him and he blinked at this.

"Because Drake is currently missing, Brown."

At the voice of Damian, Dick admittedly looked up to see the preteen leaning against the door to the Cave. Relief spread across Dick's face at the sight of Damian and the preteen moved towards them.

"Todd and Cain have been looking into where he has been going and your level is not acceptable to go digging for information on where he went." Damian replied to Steph and glanced at Dick who attempted to move towards the boy.

"Are you ok, Damian? How's you arm? Is it serious?" Dick questioned him while Steph tried to understand what the hell was going. Damian scowled at this and clutched the arm Tim bite at, bandages still wrapped around it.

"I am fine, Grayson…the beast did nothing to serious. He peeled only the top layer of skin with muscle. I won't be put down so easily." Damian told his older brother and Dick gave a small smile at this.

"Good, don't worry about that monster though. Once I'm free, I'll go hunt him down and he won't be escaping again anytime soon." Dick told Damian who blinked at this then narrowed his eyes at this and glanced at Jason who gave him a worried expression. Dick frowned at this and opened his mouth to say something before Steph then dropped to the ground, unconscious.

"What the hell?" Dick cried and Cass stared sadly at her body then up to Dick.

"She can't hear more. If she knows more then it may break her." Cass stated and Jason sighed, holding his hand out to grab the beer.

"Yeah, good thing you came back in time or the brat would have spilled more than she should know." Jason stated as the beer was placed in his hands and he popped it open. He began to chug it down and Damian looked disgusted at this.

"Are you with them, Damian?" Dick asked as Jason continued to drink the beer and Damian nodded at this, sorrow replacing on Dick's expression.

"I am but once Todd finishes his search on _Gantai_ I can leave." Damian said and Jason near spat out from Damian just said.

"Hey, kid, watch what you spit out." Jason hissed at the preteen who glared at him in return and walked away from him, heading off to the living room.

"So, both Tim and the _Gantai _are missing? Why are you so concerned with the _Gantai_, Jason? You stated he was 'under your wing', that doesn't mean you need to be concerned about what he is currently doing unless_ it's _connected to Tim." Dick stated and Jason ran his fingers through his hair.

"It's none of your business, Dickie bird. Now let's get back to research." Jason said as he ignored Dick's statement and placed his beer can on the floor. He stood back up then brought his hands to Dick's throat, whispering, "Sorry, Dick, but its for the best."

* * *

Then he closed his hands around Dick's throat, horror etched onto his face as Jason began to drag him into unconscious and Cass did the same to Bruce.

**"****Have you fully accepted yourself, Timothy?" **

He opened his eyes back up before seeing _him _smile down to him as he still was held back to the chair but _he _had took up the appearance of _his_ death. Tim gave him a small smirk before saying, **"What do you think?" **

_He _grinned and replied, **"Most likely. You've changed since the beginning of Crane's torture, normally begging to be brought back to Wayne Manors but now you don't even care about the pain being inflicted on your body. You think of it as fun instead of painful. It's been quite an adventure, Timothy." **

Tim raised what remained of his eyebrow at this and _He _brought a hand to _his _face.

**"****My being will soon be fading from your subconscious. I've played my part as I wanted, or more like how you wanted. You wanted to be known as a monster and now you have. I wouldn't be surprised if you began to not even need this psychosis state of mind anymore." **_He _said and Tim nodded at this, knowing he had fully accepted himself as a monster, known as a Ghoul, that ate human flesh as his own food supply.

**"****I also wouldn't be surprised if you began to-" **_He _began until he spat out blood, covering Tim's face from this. He didn't wince at this and narrowed his eyes at this, confusion written over his face.

**"****Yeah, yeah, now you've served your purpose, so shut the fuck up." **

Tim looked to see himself wearing his Red Robin uniform with blood dripping down from his hair, his eyes now both looking like _his_. The blood was trailing down his face as if he were bleeding but he didn't believe that it was his own. Three tentacles whipped from behind him and blood dripped onto the ground, painting the tiled floor red. One tentacle pierced through _his _body and the other man held the expression of annoyance written over his face at this. _He _moved to stop the bleeding but when the other him pulled the tentacle out, _he _quickly disappeared like ash into the air. The other him sighed and looked towards Tim with a sicken grin across his face, delight speed across his features.

**"****Hello, Tim." **the other him said and Tim raised an eyebrow at this, **"I'm guessing I should introduce myself. I am what you feared for so long, becoming a monster, a Ghoul. I am the embodiment of your self fear, a monster that only desires flesh of the living to eat and no care of who or what I get to eat." **

**"****So?" **Tim asked the other him who then frowned at this, **"Is that why you killed ****_him _****because he would be in the way of me fully accepting myself as no longer human?" **

**"****No, he was just a step to gain access to your desires. He was what I was just a few days ago until now. Your fear has developed into me. He was like a previous form that I needed to dispose of because your attachment was growing too strong to him. You needed some more visual and mental aid." **'Fear' told him and the tentacles whipped around him, now pointing at Tim, **"You still fear something so you can't move pass this step. You will be caught between changing your ideals and will. You'll be stuck in this psychosis state of mind, never being able to accept this state. Your sanity will disappear and you will become nothing but a being focused on finding himself food to stay alive and even killing those who stand in your way of getting your food." **

Tim narrowed his eyes at this before 'Fear' clamped a hand on Tim's head forcing his head to look up to him. He glared at 'Fear' before the tentacles then pointed directly at his face, ready to attack him.

**"****This fear is present because you don't know how to make the next step. So, until you learn how to make the next step you won't be going anywhere." **'Fear' told him and Tim opened his mouth to say something but when he attempted to say something, 'Fear' slashed Tim's mouth.

Blood spilled from the wound and Tim attempted to see what happened to him but he knew that the attack caused his jaw to unhinged from his mouth, the muscles that connected it had ripped apart. He gurgled something out as he tried to say something but he couldn't as his tongue hung down to his chin along with his bottom row of teeth.

**"****Now, go back and find out what you need to do so you can finally become what you need to be." **'Fear' told him and Tim glared at him then 'Fear' slashed at his throat. This time have his head roll off his shoulders with his lower jaw remained on his body and onto the floor.

**"****So, wake the fuck up and figure out what is wrong with you." ** 'Fear' told the disembodied head.

* * *

Damian stared at the surveillance cameras of Boston Harbor as a car landed on Red Robin's body, forcing him to the ground. Talia held Damian's unconscious body in her hands as Scarecrow appeared from the shadows with many syringes in his hand. Audio was disabled but video continued to reel. From the shaking of the car, Damian knew something was causing Tim to freak out as Crane approached him. He narrowed his eyes and paused the scene so he could get a closer look at the needles, seeing if there was anything that could help clue in what Crane had in the needles.

Tentacles then pierced through the car, glass shattered around Tim along with metal from the car. He could tell that Tim must have been screaming or yelling at Crane from the shaking of the vehicle. Then Crane knelt down, out of view from the camera, and the vehicle stopped shaking before next thing he knew, the tentacles slowly disappeared, disintegrated into thin air. Scarecrow then stood back up and one needle no longer filled with the fluid.

Then Scarecrow looked directly into the camera before shooting a bullet into it, ending any further recordings.

"So this is what we have to offer from the recordings?" Jason said from behind him and Damian scoffed at this.

"Yes. So, we know for certain that Scarecrow took him. Who exactly has been in contact with Crane lately?" Damian asked his older adoptive brother who then placed a cigarette between his lips, sitting down next to him. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, annoyance written all over his face.

"Bane's man had been at the fight with Tim when I brought him. I believe Crane had been there when he lost control of himself so they probably are connected. I can go ahead and find him if you can pull up any areas he's recently been around. He should be close to Crane's hide out if he's with him to deliver supplies. " Jason told him and Damian nodded, starting to pull up as much information as he could.

"So, do you all want to explain why Tim had the tentacles that _Gantai _had when it attacked Dick and Cass?"

Damian and Jason froze at the statement then turned to face both Barbara Gordon and Katherine Kane with anger and annoyance written over their faces.

"Shit." Jason spat out, forgotten about the audio the videos recorded, and went to grab a weapon from his belt of the Nightwing outfit.

"Don't even try, boys." Katherine said and took position to attack them when ready. Jason gripped the chair tight and Damian frowned, staring at the video that continued to roll on repeat.

"Why didn't I catch either of you come in from the alarm system?" Jason hissed and Babs rolled her eyes at this, tapping her fingers against the arm rest of her wheelchair.

"Who do you think besides Tim is constantly updating the system here?" Babs stated and Jason scowled from the discovery, "Now, explain before I have Kate go up and free Bruce, Dick, and Steph to see what you've been hiding from us all."

Jason growled and pound his fist on the computer before typing in a few words, multiple files appearing over the video.

"Here! This is your fucking answer you want!" Jason shouted and one file shown had shown Tim's back, bare, with the red tentacles out but stayed still. A doctor, or someone in a green coat, observed the tentacles from his back. He held a syringe and scalpel in hand close to the tentacles as he attempted to scratch a piece of tentacles off and achieved to do so affectively.

"He is no monster, you bitches…He is still that pain in the ass, replacement. He was put in this predicament because he was being a damn kind soul and suffered injuries that were implanted by either a mistake or purpose." Jason said to them and he grind his teeth together from giving up this information.

Horror quickly etched onto their faces from this image and Babs slowly hushed out, "Poor Tim…and he's been constantly pinned as a monster from us for a while. How could he stand with us from our treatment?"

"Because the fucking idiot cares too much about seeming to be alright for you guys. Why the fuck do you think he constantly was away or with me? I'm the black sheep. The one who no longer follows the way of a hero, so I should know that you guys don't like change-_at all_." Jason told them and Babs glanced down at her hands while Kate remained motionless.

"Now that you know of this…are you guys willing to help hide this secret from them and find Tim before he truly loses himself as Timothy Drake, a human with a caring family that will always be on his side?" Jason asked the two women and they both looked back up to the plastered information of Tim on the computer before looking to Jason with determination.

"Of course. No matter what happened to Tim, I will stand by him." Kate stated and Jason grinned at this, though still held some doubt.

"I've watched him since he began as Robin and I will still look out for him. He's practically my little brother." Babs told him and Jason's grin grew even larger.

"Excellent then we'll be able to find the replacement in a matter of time." Jason stated in joy and everyone began to work away to find Tim before they would be to late.

* * *

_"__Would you survive if your head was cut off from your body, little bird?" _Crane asked Tim who's eyes slowly opened. His sleep had his right eye quickly regenerate and he blinked both of them awake, groaning as he slumped his shoulders down. The stake that had been submerged in his leg had disappeared but left a large scar as pink flesh colored scar tissue.

"What…was that Crane?" Tim replied back, not processing what the Scarecrow asked him, and again groaned.

_"__You didn't hear me the first time, little bird?" _Crane said and grinned at this as he grabbed a surgical hook, trocar, and trephine from the table of supplies. Tim raised an eyebrow at this and waited for Crane to continue his sentence.

_"__Would you serve if your head was to be cut off from your body?" _Crane questioned Tim who froze at this, horror written over his expression from this since he only thought of pain and serious injuries, not injuries that would have his _head cut off from his body_.

_Just like his dream_.

"…" Tim remained silent from this and continued to think.

_What would happen to him if his head were cut off? Would it get replaced from another head by being regenerated? Would he die like a normal human being? But if that didn't work then how would he eventually die then? Had he become an immortal with knowing of this? _

_What the fuck could he do to die then?!_

Tim wanted to claw at his face at this revelation and scream out until his voice would die from his repetition.

_"__Oh, you don't know. How great. This experiment will definitely determine if you live or die then." _Crane said and then walked over to Tim, putting the trephine above his head. Tim slowly began to quiver at this and waited for it to begin drilling into his brain.

_"__You were so prepared for any other painful experiments but when death hangs in the balance-or possibly not dying at all. Once the comment of death arrives, you become so timid and a coward. Why is this so, little bird? Is it because you can handle the death of others but your own makes you break down, thinking about your choices and if you have done anything in the past that you wish you could fix. _

_"__What a coward you are. You can't get over that small fact that you could die and leave so many things behind. You grip tightly onto the feeling of being alive that death terrifies you. When I established so much pain to you, you knew that you were alive. Now that I'm thinking of death, you can't help yourself from breaking down. This grip of yours is blinding you and making you be a coward. That is something I didn't believe a Bat could have but you proved me wrong, little bird." _Crane explained and Tim breathed heavily, watching as Crane angled the trephine more at an angle. Crane sighed and looked back Tim's terrified eyes.

_"__I had so much expectation that you would evolve into something more but you failed again, little bird. Now, it is your time to find out if you can truly die." _Crane said and before Tim could say anything else, the trephine began to turn. Tim knew it wouldn't pierce past his skull just yet but he could feel _so _very close to him that he pulled the chains on his hands but it proved worthless.

"No…please. Don't…I don't want to die. I…I…I…" Tim whimpered out and then Crane gave a little wave to Tim as a final goodbye. Tim's eyes grew wide as pain ruptured from his skull, proctoring his nerves and blood slowly beginning to drip from the wound slowly beginning to form.

_"__Goodbye, little bird." _Crane said and with another turn of the trephine, Tim screamed, one that echoed across the torture chamber, escaping out from the vents into Gotham. It let the people of Gotham know that one bird had its wings plucked off while flying and diving straight to the ground heading towards its death.


	11. Chapter X: HiGh SpIrItS

**Reviews: **

**To Gloriejo: Sorry for the suspense! Here's the new chapter to enjoy! It'll hopeful shock all of you! Thanks for the comment and support! Enjoy!**

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**Thanks for all the favorites and followers! I appreciate it! Enjoy the chapter! Only one more before this story reaches its conclusion!**

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**I do not own Batman or any other DC characters.**

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul **

**Chapter X**

* * *

**HiGh SpIrItS**

_"__There is always more spirit in attack in defense." -Livy_

* * *

_"__You know, lost bird, I never would have thought you would survive this long. I know you've been tortured before but not this intense it is shown from the scars on your back and all over your body. Being in the line of a superhero does not stop from battle wounds. Did you never liked showing off your victories or loses, little bird? I think Red Hood would most likely do that if he were to shed some skin. The new Robin would definitely show off with that arrogance of his, believing he can do anything just because he is the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul, two very strong and ideal leaders. Nightwing wouldn't mind but he would be shy about, probably trying to avoid if he could. _

_"__But, you, little bird. I think you would constantly try to hide from everyone. You seem like that kind of person, or at least before the current situation. You have quite more than what I would imagine even after this session we have between us. I'm impressed with how much pain you must have dealt with to get this far. _

_"__With the certain situation going on, how much long are you going to survive with the blood flowing out from your wound? It is quite a lot compared to previous times with our sessions where you would barely bleed out but this one I can understand since it is a head injury. What about cutting your neck so you'll bleed out? Would that actually kill you since all the blood that flowed through your body would be drained? Now that would be interesting, so would you like to test this theory after I'm done drilling into your brain?" _

Scarecrow continued to say to the motionless body of Tim who's eyes rolled in the back of his head and his mouth opened wide from his scream that had been stopped after a few hours of being still. Scarecrow hummed along to a random tone and peered into Tim's open skull where he could see Tim's brain, all pick and gooey from what he could see. Blood dribbled out from the wound and dripped and clutched onto what remained of his hair since the burning. Tim said nothing as Scarecrow then reached to grab a scalpel off of the many utensils near him but instead placed it down to grab a syringe.

_"__How about I go collect some sample from your blood and brain, little bird? I hope you won't mind this." _ Scarecrow said as he then took samples from the motionless Tim Drake, _"Then finding out your real identity will find me all the birds in your little nest." _

Tim's eyes twitched at this statement but Scarecrow didn't know of this as he moved the syringe through the hole to his brain and blood.

* * *

**"****Now, Tim, what are you going to do about the fact that he is willing to give away your biggest secret besides being a monster?" **

Tim grind his teeth at this and gripped his hands tight, so much that they started to bleed from this. He growled at this and Fear smirked at the sight of this. He was currently bleeding from the wounds he gained from reality, blood dripping into his eyes and body. He heaved for breath and pulled at the chains again, let they refused to be moved from his body. 'Fear' then pulled Tim's head up, forcing him to look him directly in the eye.

**"****You're practically dead. He drilled a hole in your skull and is playing around in your noggin. You can't move. You're going to end up dead and end up giving away your family's biggest secret. You are useless unless you get over that one fear you have. You'll truly die if you don't do anything." **'Fear' told him and Tim scowled at this, anger written over his face. Then 'Fear' grinned at this as his grin slide to the edge of his face and tapped the wound on his head.

**"****Oh, but maybe you want to die because of all the pain that was giving to you? Or is it possibly because you want to make sure you can die and never have to question it again?" **'Fear' questioned Tim and Tim's eyes grew wide from this suggestion. 'Fear's grin continued to grow as he knew that he was correct.

**"****How delightful. So, you now know what you truly fear, huh, Timothy?" **'Fear' suggested and Tim snapped away from 'Fear's' touch.

**"****You don't even know ho to handle it. You're to afraid of what to choose: accept death and handle over everything your family has worked for or stay alive and make sure that information doesn't get out." **'Fear' told him and Tim grind his teeth together before facing his head down to the floor.

"You know, you could easily break out of those chains, Tim."

His eyes are wide at the voice of Jason and snapped his head in the direction of the older young man who was currently smoking. Smoke escaped from both his lips and nostrils while he also bore a sly grin across his face. He wore his Red Hood uniform and took the cigarette out of his mouth before blowing out more smoke. He tapped the cigarette against one of his fingers and placed it back in his mouth.

"Those chains around you, in here, aren't real, kid. You want to be protected from what will become of you if you do accept to fight. That's why you don't remind yourself that the chains can be broken. This 'Fear' you constantly have around you is preventing that." Jason told him and Tim blinked at this before scowling.

"No, 'Fear' isn't stopping me. It is my judgement on what I think is right and wrong." Tim replied to Jason who then frowned at this, his cigarette's butt slowly falling off.

"Are you so sure about that? 'Fear' has always prevented you from doing so many thing but also forcing you to do things you wish you didn't have to do. It prevented you from killing that man the day you realized you were a Ghoul. It forced you to attack Dick and Cass when you became crazed with hunger. 'Fear' has been a horror to you since your very beginning. You 'Feared' of taking my role when you began as Robin. You 'Feared' of being replaced yourself by Damian. You 'Feared' for so long that you would possibility lose yourself to killing someone out of rage towards your inability to protect others.

"You 'Fear' couldn't protect Steph when she had been nearly killed years ago and throughout to now. You 'Fear' couldn't protect Bruce from anyone trying to take someone away from the family. You 'Fear' so many things that you can't stop. Yet you don't seem to notice that you can easily over come this 'Fear', kid.

"What you need to do instead of 'Fear' of being immortal or dying, is simply accept whatever reality that will happen. You will not survive death nor life if you don't accept 'Fear', kid. If accept 'Fear', it will no longer bother you anymore nor haunt you by illusions of false realities. If you do't accept it then you will never be able to protect anyone again nor save them. This is what 'Fear' has been doing to stop you come accomplishing this. Trying to hide the truth from you." Jason explained to his replacement whose eyes continued to grow large from each word he spat out. Tim stared at Jason before he took the cigarette out of his mouth and grinned at him.

"Now, are you going to let Fear push you down? Or are you going to stand back up and fight against Fear?" Jason asked him and Tim scowled at this then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and Jason chuckled at this, smoke escaping from his lips.

"Good." he stated as Tim pushed his hands and feet together then quickly snapped the chains off, "Now, go show how much stronger you are, kid. You'll see me soon."

Tim's eyes then shot open, both eyes bearing the black sclera and red iris, and turned to see the other him, known as Fear, smile at him.

**"****See? I told you that you could find out what was wrong with you." **Fear said and Tim stood up, finally off the chair after four days of torture being tied down. His ruined bare feet against the tile floor padded and echoed around them and he glanced down to his torn up Red Robin uniform that had his pants remaining on his body and singed part of his shirt that had once been connected to the pants.

**"****Now look at you. You've become exactly what you truly wanted. Now, the only thing you have to do is accept me, Tim. Once you do, everything will follow its path." **Fear told him and Tim slowly nodded at this.

"I know." he said and sighed before the red tentacles pierced out from his body, pointing at Fear, "That's why the only way to accept you is to _eat you._"

Fear grinned at this and said, **"Exactly. Come, Timothy and bring an end to this torment." **

And then Tim shot at him and Fear put his defenses down, waiting for the attack head on.

Fear put nothing to stop the attack but waited for Tim to finally take him down.

* * *

"I've got a location."

Once those words escaped Babs mouth, Jason and Cass shot up to go see where the hacker had found Tim. Jason had changed out of Dick's costume once the day came to an end yesterday, now wearing a pair of Bruce's sweats and a ratty old New Jersey Devils t-shirt. Cass meanwhile bore a New York Jets t-shirt and black sweat pants from the Cave. Katherine Kane had went out to fight crime and find more information on Tim's disappearance meanwhile Damian Wayne watched over his father. adoptive brother, and Steph above the Cave.

On the computer screen, a small red dot blinked at a warehouse in Gotham's East End and Jason clenched his fist tight.

"Can you get a written location?" Jason asked as he then turned away from the computer moving throughout the Bat Cave to get changed into his Red Hood uniform.

"Over course I can, Jason." she stated and began to type into the computer again, "But what you need to do is come up with a plan. We have no clue what sort of state Tim might possibly be in. We have no clue what Crane has on him if he knows that we are coming after Tim. Think of something before I hand the list over to you."

Jason stopped and scowled, anger clearly written over his face.

"But we have no time to sit back and idle about a possible plan. Tim could be barely hanging on a string as we speak. We need to go now before anything else could happen to him." Jason snapped back to her who merely narrowed her eyes at this.

"What we need to be is careful, not reckless, Jason. This is a rescue mission and if anything were to go wrong or something happens to Tim, what will you tell everyone? What will you tell Bruce or Dick or Steph? You won't be able to lie. Think this through." she explained before carting away with Tim's location only in her hands. Jason waited until she was fully gone before he started cursing.

"SON OF A BITCH! FUCKING HELL!" he screamed and shot to attack the solid metal wall with his fist but Cass quickly caught his attack. He stared at this before swearing again and Cass frowned at his words. He sank to his knees before running his fingers through his hair and shock flowing violently in his system, thinking back to his demise.

How Bruce had been to late to save him.

He needed to make sure he would not end up in Bruce's position when he told Tim that he would find him if he were to ever get in trouble.

He pulled his cigarettes out of the sweats and his body trembled as he slowly took a single cigarette out, placing it between his lips. Jason then pulled out his silver lighter, struggling to flick a flame up then Cass took it out of his hand. She managed to do it after a couple times and hovered it over the cigarette. He examined the cigarette as he sucked in the flame of the cigarette and the end turned red. He felt the toxin fumes flow down to his lungs and Cass pulled the lighter away, snapping it shut.

"Thanks." he murmured and she nodded at this, her black hair bobbing up and down from this. She grabbed his hand and placed the lighter back in his hand.

"You worried Tim will die, correct?" she questioned and he scowled at this, his shaking now gone after the cigarette had been lite.

"Yes…I'm worried we could be to late and Crane did something to the replacement that will forever change him. He does not deserve anything else after what happened to him." Jason said and took the cigarette out, fumes escaping from both his mouth and nostrils.

"Babs is right. But you is also right." Cass stated and he run his fingers through his hair. He placed the cigarette back in his mouth before pushing himself up and looked to the computer screen, clenching his fist tight.

"I have an idea." he said and she raised an eyebrow at this, wondering what it was, "It is a really stupid one but it must be done so we can get to Tim quicker."

She nodded at this and he walked to the stair case, climbing up to the normal level of Wayne Mansions.

"Once this happens, let everything go. Just watch. Nothing else." Jason said and she nodded at this too before he pulled out a switch blade. She observed him and he stood still when they reached the top of the stair case, staring at the annoyed forms of Dick, Bruce, and Steph. Damian turned to them and narrowed his eyes at the sight of the blade, clenching his fist to be ready to attack. Then he grabbed Dick's wrists and started cutting the rope around his wrists. All of them besides Cass blinking at this.

"Head towards Gotham's East End. That's where Tim is." Jason said simply and Dick blinked at this before narrowing his eyes.

"Why are you telling us that and letting me go?" Dick questioned him and Jason frowned at this.

"No, I'm telling you because if something goes down, we're going to need back up." Jason explained before walking away slowly then he bolted back down the stair case.

"HEY!" Dick cried out and Jason scowled from this, his cigarette spat out from rushing down the stairs. He and Cass both gathered their weapons and uniforms before starting to undress into them.

"He's going to get everyone free then go after us." Jason stated and Cass nodded, having an idea where this plan was going or at least ultimately going after Tim and saving him.

* * *

Fear was pinned down to the ground with blood slowly polling out from his body and Tim stood above, his tentacles holding Fear down. Tim heaved for breath and Fear grinned up at him, waiting for his next move.

**"****Well, looks like it has finally come to this. Now, Timothy, will you do the honor?" **Fear questioned him and Tim continued to stare down at him. Bloodlust running through his veins and he felt blood pouring out from his wounds of reality. Fear grinned up at him and he clenched his fists tight.

"Indeed." Tim said and then sank to his knees. He licked his lips, knowing that he would be finally be eating away his fear that has been taunting him for so long. He knelt down and opened his mouth wide, salvia dribbled down his chin onto Fear.

**"****Ah, you have finally hungered to taste fear at its weakest. Good, good." **Fear told him and Tim's grin couldn't help but grow incredibly wide.

_"__Yes, let the feast begin so I don't have to be bothered by your pesky voice anymore." _Tim stated in an annoyed voice and with no other thought, Tim opened his mouth wide and bite down on Fear's neck.

Blood rushed down Fear's neck and Tim gnawed tighter at the piece of flesh before ripping it away from Fear. Compared to what he had been recently eating, the embodiment of his Fear was incredibly delicious, like the hamburgers his mother would make with him back when he was an innocent child. Blood dribbled down his face with a shit eating grinning across it before saying, **"You are quite delicious, Fear. I can't wait to finish you off. You'll be one of the best meals I have ever gotten before." **

Fear laughed at this while coughing out blood at the same time and waited Tim to rip out another piece of flesh from him. He chewed at the piece of flesh and swallowed before nearly ripping Fear's head off at the angle he went to get more flesh. It was amazing how much power he felt at eating away his own fear. He chopped down and ripped another piece away from Fear, blood spattering against his body.

**"****Now, Fear, you will bother me no more." **Tim announced and chewed at the piece of flesh in his mouth before plunging his hand right past Fear's skin and to his heart. He felt it pulsing as if he were alive and ripped it right out, still heart shaped like a human's with red blood splashed across it, the artery and veins torn apart from the tear of being directly pulled apart. Fear's red iris and black sclera began to disappear back to how Tim's bright blue eyes used to be like.

**"****Excellent…now, enjoy your freedom, Tim." ** Fear said before Tim placed the beating heart to his lips and devoured the heart.

Once, the heart hd been placed in his mouth, he chewed the piece of meat and ecstasy filled him. He could feel the heart separate from his chewing with the arteries and veins in a messy order. Every muscle from the heart was torn into pieces by the force his teeth chewed on and he watched as Fear began to disappear before his eyes. His flesh peeling away like how his own skin had been ripped right off and Tim finally swallowed the heart in a large gulp. The large lump grazing his throat as it did so, traveling down his esophagus and waiting for a few minutes to reach his stomach.

Fear than lost any of his muscles, the bones showing through and started to chuckle. The sound echoing in his head but he remained still from this since he has heard the Joker's and his own laughter continuing for so long after being tortured.

**"****Now, you are nothing but dust in a fake world." **Tim stated and Fear continued to chuckle until Tim kicked his head away. His jaw breaking off from the frontal lobe and remained unmoved.

**"****Good bye, Fear. You have no part in my life anymore since all that has happened to me." **Tim said to the unanimated skull and wiped away the blood from his chin, staring down at it. He then licked it off and smirked.

**"****Now, there will only be myself for others to fear." **Tim announced and chuckled at this, before the world around him began to fall apart, shattering like glass.

**"****It is time to wake up from this dream and break apart the world like how it has shattered me." **Tim said as he too been to crumble, tearing apart like paper being ripped apart. He looked to his body and smirked, staring up to the tiled ceiling. He closed his eyes and finally knew that he would be returning back with nothing no longer standing in his way.

* * *

Jason knew that Dick, Bruce, and Steph trailed behind him with Cass ahead in his lead. He couldn't help but feel even more worry as they approached the East End of Gotham. He remembered when he felt anxious that they would be too late for Tim and he could have done something else to prevent this.

"You still worried?" Cass asked and he scowled at this but nodded as a yes.

"Do not worry, Jason. We will find him in time. Have faith." she stated and he bite his lip as a response to this.

"I wish I could be as confident as you." he murmured and she frowned at this, normally not this hopeful in many circumstances. She glanced back in front of her before pulling Jason her way after seeing a sign directly in front of them. They slammed into each other and fell to the ground, rolling around in pavement until finally leading to a stop. He managed to land on top of her and she blinked at this, staring up at him in confusion.

"Are you ok?" she asked and he blinked at her response before quickly moving off of her.

"Yeah, sorry. We need to get moving before Bruce and the others catch up to us." he stated and got up, offering her hand to help het up. She nodded and accepted it, pulling herself up but instead of moving forward she wrapped her arms around him.

"Once we get there, don't freak out. We must keep cool. If Tim notices us change, he will not want to return." she whispered and he froze at her words then nodded.

"That is what my plan was, girly. Now, lets get going again or we will regret it." he stated to her and she nodded as they both ran off to go find Tim and finally free him.

* * *

_"__My, oh my, little dead bird, your blood was a little difficult to find your true DNA without mixing in the combination of that of a Ghoul. This sample gave me plenty of what I needed to know about you. I'm not very surprised about who you _**_truly _**_are though, lost bird._

_"__Timothy Drake, nineteen years old. Currently going to Gotham State University as undeclared. Parents both died, mother from poisoned drinks and father from Captain Boomerang's boomerang to the head. How sad. You were barely taken cared of. _

_"__How unfortunate. You believe that someone in the end would save you from me but they are far too late. You are now dead as a door nail. You've been broken for far too long even before transforming you into a Ghoul. You never had any help. Now that you are dead, I wonder if I could remove your organs and place them in a different bird. _

_"__Perhaps the youngest bird could work or maybe even Nightwing. He would be fun to mess with especially now that he has recorpated with the Oracle. Now that would be fun especially with the little bird. Learning that his ideal father turned into a monster? That would be amazing. Seeing the absolute horror of becoming what his younger brother was transformed into and what ate away a piece of his precious little bird . Now that would make a beautiful play. A puppet under my strings and every moment controlled by me, forcing him to do as I say." T_he Scarecrow stated to the supposed dead teen and stopped talking once he noticed the open wound from the trephine was slowly sealing itself closed.

As if he was still alive and his brain processing to heal the wound.

The Scarecrow grinned at this and slowly backed away before announcing, _"So you are still alive. How amusing now that I can't take those organs out and play around with them. So, are you now an immortal, Timothy Drake?" _

Tim's remaining scorched hair that once been black before the torture turned white from all the stress he went, known as the Marie-Antoinette Syndrome. His skull began to slowly reform itself, piece of bones regenerating, as well as his muscles returning to cover over the bone. Nerves and blood vessels connected with his brain and within a few moments of the Scarecrow's words, his eyes rolled back to the front of his head. Bright blue eyes greeted the world again and Tim breathed in, air then exhaling out from his nose. Finally, his skin covered over the old wound and he kept a calm expression over his face as he looked up to the Doctor.

The Scarecrow's knit grin grew larger as Tim then said, "Good morning, Doctor."

Confusion was written across his face once Tim ushered those words and the Scarecrow then scowled at this.

"What happened to you?" he hissed at the teen who then smirked at this.

"Oh, are you not happy with the outcome of your precious little experiment?" Tim questioned back the Doctor who then grabbed another syringe ready to stick it in Tim's lacrimal caruncle. Then realization flooded over the Scarecrow's face once he remembered that today happened to be the fourth day of Tim's capture and there was no more of liquid weapon to reduce his body down to a normal human.

He had used it all.

Tim raised an singed eyebrow at this and questioned him, "Oh? It has already been four days. That means you ran out, didn't you?"

The Scarecrow then attempted to grab a weapon from off of the table but Tim's smirk grew larger. He pushed his hands and feet together before quickly ripping the chins off with all his strength. Horror stretched across Scarecrow's face once Tim then shot at him and he grabbed the Scarecrow's head before slamming it down to the ground with a large thud. Blood gasped out from the Scarecrow's mask and Tim then placed a foot on the doctor's body, keeping him in place.

"Now, look at what you did. You should have thought more about what I might do if I were to regenerate back to life. You're push for me to join you has failed, Doctor. I'm not impressed. But you did find out who I truly am. That is a problem I must deal with." Tim stated and Scarecrow swore under his breath as he coughed up blood, realizing that Tim must have punctured his lungs from the weight of his attack.

Tim cracked his neck and his left eye turned to that of a Ghoul's, asking Scarecrow, "Now, Doctor, how do you like the thought of being eaten alive?"

* * *

Jason stared at the large warehouse in front of them, his complexion pale and worry knit across his features. He gulped and Cass grabbed his hind in support. He looked down to her and she nodded, knowing that they both needed to be prepared for the worst. She released his hand and they both cautiously walked over to warehouse's large doors. She released her breath before they both shoved the door open, the rusted iron screeching against the floor.

A whiff of iron escaped from the door and they both paid at it, admittedly noticing how strong it was. Light moved into the area and they continued to push the door open before the rustling of chains greeted their ears. They moved back and lights flickered inside the warehouse.

Blood coated everywhere on the floor and a metal chair was bolted down to the floor, chains piled by each other. The scent of blood was ran everywhere and was seen everyone in the warehouse. It shocked them especially as they continued to walk in the warehouse. Jason saw the bucket on the floor and he placed a hand to his mouth, his eyes growing incredibly wide.

"Holy fuck…" he murmured out and then looked back over to Cass, "There are fingers, toes, and piece of skin in this bucket. Multiple amounts as if Scarecrow repeatedly cut off Tim's body."

"He didn't only break off fingers, toes, and skin. He took much more than that," the echoed voice of Tim had the both of them search around to find where he was, "We don't need to worry about him anymore though."

Then a blast of light hit directly up at the ceiling.

Reflecting off of the light was the dead and mutilated body of what used to be Dr. Jonathan Crane. Chains hanging him by the throat where blood continued to drip off of and his Scarecrow mask clutched tightly in his one right remaining hand. His left hand was gone, ripped off from the looks of it, and pieces of skin barely connected to his body any more. His chest area was tore apart, as if he were mauled by an animal, being able to see his ribs and lungs but a hole was empty from his missing heart. HIs throat was contained as only muscules, nerves, and blood vessels since the skin had been teared off. His eyes were missing and left gaping holes to stare directly into.

"One less villain to be worried about, right, Jason and Cass?"

Then something landed in front of them and they blinked at the sight of Tim.

Blood was drenched over his entire body, the ends of his newly white hair now dyed crimson, and bright blue eyes glistened at the sight of them. Blood stained his mouth and lips, and he bore only the remaining part of his uniform. His bare feet showed the repeated scar tissue from being pulled apart and Tim had somewhat of an innocent grin across his face but they both knew it held some lies and horror within it.

"Tim…" Jason ushered out and remained frozen at the sight of Tim, not knowing what to do until Tim spoke out, "I knew you guys would come for me."


	12. Conclusion: GhOuL

**AN: So this is the end of Gotham Ghoul, thank you to everyone who has taken interest in this story and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Enjoy and leave some feedback if you want! Also, it is shorter than the normal chapters but it is sort of how I wanted it to pull out. Anyway, enjoy and thanks again! **

* * *

**I do not own Batman or any other DC characters.**

* * *

**Gotham Ghoul**

**Conclusion**

* * *

**GhOuL**

_"__I am a Ghoul." -Ken Kaneki, Tokyo Ghoul_

* * *

When Steph, Dick, and Bruce arrived at the warehouse, they weren't greeted by Jason, Cass, or Tim but the sight of the burning warehouse lighting up the Harbor from behind it. They all stared, all of them confused, not sure what to do but stare at the blazing building. They were left gasped and did nothing to stop it, letting it continue as parts of the warehouse began to collapse.

"Are we…are we just going to let the building collapse?" Dick whispered out and gulped, the heat of from the fire whipping around them, until Steph then bolted to the warehouse.

"Shit." Bruce ushered as instead of her making it the entire way to the building someone had pulled her aside, into their arms. Her sky blue eyes widen as did the rest of the family's once they caught sight of Timothy Drake.

His hair white as snow and bright blue eyes stared down at her in comfort. His body bore only the retainments of his Red Robin pants cut and burnt to around his knees. Scars from his oldest wounds remained on his body and new ones glistened its recent scar tissue.

He gripped her tight in his arms, not wanting to let her go as if he were to wake back up in the warehouse still chained down.

"T..im?" she muttered out and then he released his grip on, pushing her away to face the shocked expression over her face.

"You're alive." Dick ushered out and Tim then narrowed his eyes, turning back to the warehouse.

"Yes. Jason, Cass, and I set the place ablaze." he answered and then turned back to them, a smile plastered over his face, "Don't worry, though. Scarecrow has been taken care of."

"What do you mean-?" Steph began but was silenced when he gave her sad smile before crushing his lips onto her own. Her eyes grew wide at his shocking approach and her grip on him slowly grew less tense.

But something was very wrong.

She had him to recoil with her after so long but right now, she wanted nothing to do with him.

_And his lips tasted of blood too. _

Suddenly someone pulled Tim away from he and snarked back, "The fuck are you doing, dumbass?"

They all looked to see Jason Todd, holding Tim by his shoulders and a glare across his face.

Tim frowned at this and said, "I'm greeting everyone."

"That sure as hell was not a normal greeting then." Jason snarled back at him and Tim frowned at this, unsure how to react to this.

"What the hell happened, Tim?" Bruce questioned him and Tim turned to face him, giving him a smile.

"Nothing much. I'm fine. Everything is under control. Why do you ask?" he replied back to Bruce who continued to only stare at him more. He knew something was wrong with him, knowing he was hiding something from him since he was trying so hard to keep it under covered.

"Something did happen and you are purposely hiding it from us." Bruce accused of Tim and Tim frowned at this before turning to face Jason, their eyes locking gazes with each other.

"It's your decision, dumbass. You choose this, so whatever happens you can figure it out with my help still." Jason told him and released his grip on Tim before moving away a few steps from him.

Tim breathed in before pushing his hair away from his eyes and closed his eyes.

"I just hope I won't regret this latter." he mumbled under his breath before opening his eyes again, his left eye revealed to have his sclera black and iris crimson like blood. Slowly, six red large tentacles erupted from his back and horror spreading across all of their faces. The tentacles swung around dangerously around him and his family could not help but stare at him in shock and disbelief.

"No…" Dick whispered out from this realization that before him was the so-called _monster _that ate a part of his brother.

"It was you that stopped Devin…you killed him, didn't you?" Steph announced after seeing the sight of the tentacles and Tim sighed, cracking his neck at this.

"I didn't mean to. I had lost control of myself after seeing you almost getting killed. That's actually when the tentacles appeared." he replied to her comment and then cracked his knuckles.

"Wha-how? I don't…" Dick mumbled as he tried to comprehend the situation before him.

"You know that trip to Japan and accident that happened? I battled a fierce monster and I got heavily injured to the point I needed organs. At the time, the monster I battled had been the _perfect _match so I was transplanted organs from a being called a Ghoul. They can only eat human flesh." Tim explained before sighing and the tentacles began to diminish into thin air, "So, any time you guys were around me-no, never mind that, any _human _that was near me, taunted my self control to not you. Do you know how hard it is to stop yourself from eating your own family and friends? It's difficult because you don't want to hurt them but you can't stand the delicious smell coming off from them!"

He grinned madly and now nervousness approaching the Batman family, "But, the best taste in the world is eating your own fear alive. When it finally gives up trying to be better than you, how delightful. Do you know the feeling of finally beating your enemies and they do give up, hoping that surrender would be acceptable but in the end you _kill _them instead?"

His eye returned back to normal before he pointed to the warehouse and said, "Now that's what happened to the Doctor. He begged to be captured but after what he has put so many through, he got what was coming for him."

Steph fell to her knees and shook from his words meanwhile Dick continued stare at him in shock. Bruce remained still as he awaited for Tim to possible do something dramatic. Then Tim started walking towards them before stopping only a few feet away.

"Now, if you don't mind moving out of my way." he said and then Steph tackled him to the ground, her hands shoving him to the ground. Confusion written over her face and her eyes wide in terror yet he did nothing but watched her in intense.

"Even after coming back from Japan, you stayed the same. But this, isn't you. Something really bad happened to you when you were held captive. What did Scarecrow do to you?" she questioned him and that's when his eyes narrowed, anger flared up and his eye returned to that of a Ghoul.

She paled at this and jumped off him as the tentacles started to form. He scowled then before another say the tentacles had already disappeared into the thin air.  
"He is nothing but the past, an insignificant factor. I don't need to get angry over something that has changed me for the better." he mumbled under his breath and pushed his hair back, standing up to see Bruce already aiming to tackle him to the ground.

He easily dodged the attack by moving aside and grabbing Bruce by his arms, pulling them behind his back and squeezed hard enough to bring tension on his bones.

"That is quite rude, Bruce. Is that how you great your son that has been through much these past few weeks?" Tim questioned his father and Bruce scowled from this, wincing also at the pain, "Now, I'll shall be on my way and none of you will stop me. If you try to, I will not hesitate to put you down."

He looked to see Jason with his arms crossed over his chest and observing him as if he were testing him.

"Are you going to follow me, Jason?" Tim asked and Jason sighed before shrugging.

"…Sure. I promised to keep watch over you so I'll continue to do so." he stated and Tim nodded at this before kicking Bruce away into the ground, pain erupting in his shoulders. He scowled and saw as Steph shook in her feet, trying to prepare herself to fight him, and Dick continued to stare at him in shock.

"I go to."

The voice of Cass caused everyone to turn and see the Black haired girl who bore the Black Bat uniform. Tim smirked at this and said, "Well of course. The more, the merrier. This little adventure will get interesting, isn't?"

She just stared at them before walking over to them, no emotion seen on her face before Tim turned back to Bruce and the others.

"Now, don't try to find where we go, Bruce. It will prove little justice and you won't be able to stop us. Just let us be and we will do no harm to you. I am only on a hunt, whoever gets in my way will suffer." Tim explained to Bruce and began to walk away from them with Jason pulling out a cigarette to light up and Cass following with them.

"Who are you hunting?" Bruce asked and Tim stopped at this before turning to him with a sly smile across his face.

"Oh, the man who created this monster." he replied and then they all disappeared into the shadows and smoke of the warehouse.

* * *

"Who are you?"

_"__I am no one. My name has since been forgotten and I only have one goal to achieve." _

"Oh, what is this goal?"

_" __To get my revenge on one man that has wronged me." _

"How come?"

_"__Because, he deserves to." _

**_"_**_Why?" _

_"__He has done many things that are viewed wrong and evil. And evil needs to be punished." _

"Interesting. What about you though?"

_"__Me, evil? Of course, I've killed men before but they were known as monsters to many before being called human." _

"How am I not surprised. But what about you? Are you a monster?"

_"__Well, of course. Only monsters can kill monsters. There is no denying that." _

"I see…so I shall be killed by a monster then."

_"__Indeed. For I am a Ghoul. A being that feasts only on human flesh. And because you have done so much wrong in the world, you shall be my feast to enjoy. So, what are your last word before you are taking from this world, Riddler?" _

The Riddler sighed and his red hair fell before his eyes, looking up to the one black eyed young man with red iris. White pulled back from the young man's face by the fact that it was long enough to be in a ponytail and black fingernails greeted the Riddler's view. The young man wore a black hoodie with the shelves ripped with but a red long shelve shirt was under it with black leather fingerless gloves. A black painted skull was placed on the center of his chest while he also bore black baggy jeans with many pockets. He also wore a black mask fashioned to resemble leather gimp with an eyepatch over his right eye and bares lipless mouth that shows gnashing teeth like some of Gotham's monsters but his real lips and teeth did greet the Riddler. It also had two bolts sticking out from the neck of the mask as if he were Frankstein.

"What is black and white and red all over?"

The young man grinned at this before answering the riddle, _"The Gantai." _

The Riddler smirked at this before nodding and saying, "Correct. Good game, _Ganta_i_." _

Then the _Gantai _launched at the Riddler, tackling his throat and easily ripping his apart his muscles and skin from his body. The Riddler ushered out a cry of pain before his veins ripped apart from his body. Blood coated the _Gantai_'s mouth and dribbled down his lips, ripping the piece of flesh and ending the man's life to soon. The Riddler's mouth hung gapping open, begging for breath before the _Gantai _swallowed the piece of flesh. He stared at the Riddler before wiping his mouth to draw away the blood and onto his shelve.

The sound of a metal knocking forced him to turn and see Red Hood staring at him. He smiled at him and said, "Well, he had nothing much to say although he knows that Ra's al Ghul has been sending some sort of shipments to Japan."

"So, we are heading to Japan, then?" Red Hood questioned him and the _Gantai _nodded at this.

The _Gantai _ then stated, "Back to where everything began and ended."

"Indeed. Are you prepared?" Red Hood asked and motioned to the body of the Riddler.

"Of course, you have to face the past anywhere you go. Now it is Ra's time for his past mistakes to go haunt him." The _Gantai _stated and his eye transformed into the form of dark, navy irises, ready to take on his revenge after so long of being a monster because of this man.

* * *

_The End…_


End file.
